"Confront?" questioned the Arin prince. "What do you mean? I thought the Talent would not allow the dark prince to listen to reason."
"You thought correctly," nodded Audric. "There will be no reasoning during the confrontation. It will be a battle to the death for one of them."
"No!" shouted Jared. "I will not use my power to kill anyone, especially not my brother."
"You must, Jared," sighed Audric. "You are the world's only chance."
"I will not do it," yelled Jared, "and neither of you can make me do it."
Jared turned and ran off towards the cave. Prince Antion turned to run after him, but Audric grabbed his arm.
"Let him cry about it," Audric said sadly. "He will be repulsed by the thought for a while, but he will learn to understand that he must do what is necessary to restore the equilibrium of the Talent. You must guide him, and you must be there to help him. Without your reservoir of power, Jared will not stand a chance of defeating Zinan."
Chapter 42 - Discovering Truths
Discovering Truths
The summer sun bore down on the dark prince as he rode through the city gates of Tarent. He was dirty, tired, and drenched in perspiration. He wanted desperately to bathe and change his clothes, but he was more anxious to solve the riddle that had been revealed to him over the past two months.
Prince Zinan passed through the gates of the palace and dismounted by the door, leaving his horse to be taken care of by someone else. He stormed into the palace, demanding a meeting of the king's advisors from the first soldier he passed. He ignored the polite bows of the servants until he reached his chambers and demanded that a bath be drawn immediately. Setting his notes aside, the dark prince stripped off his clothes and climbed into the tub before it was completely filled. The servants sloshed water all over the floor as they hurried to finish filling the tub, but Prince Zinan was unaware of the mistake that would normally have raised his ire. Instead he sat with his eyes closed as servants washed his body and mopped the floor.
By the time the prince was dried and dressed, the meeting chamber was already full of the king's advisors. Prince Zinan strode into the room and sat at the head of the table, which was usually reserved for the king. Everyone in the room noticed the slip, but none dared to mention it.
"Someone is trying to impersonate me," Prince Zinan began. "I want to know who it is."
The room fell silent as the dark prince gazed around at the assembled advisors, searching each of their faces for some sign of treachery.
"How do you know someone is trying to impersonate you?" Naveena asked calmly after no one else had chosen to speak.
"Because my spies report seeing me all over the world," scowled Prince Zinan. "I want to know who is behind this."
"But you have been all over the world," Naveena pointed out. "Why is it unusual for people to have noticed you?"
"It is not me that they noticed," Prince Zinan shot back. "I am not foolish enough to reveal myself when I travel to foreign lands. It is someone else trying to pretend that they are me."
Naveena could tell that the dark prince was upset, and she worried about his having one of his episodes in front of the entire council.
"Tell us where and when your double was sighted," Naveena urged calmly. "Perhaps we can piece the puzzle together."
Prince Zinan spread his notes out on the table and began staring at them.
"Kyland and Anatar last summer," the dark prince began. "Koar, and Laborg in the fall.
"I seem to recall mention of someone seeing you in Tarent last fall," offered General Ortega. "It was when we were investigating the escape of King Caedmon. We dismissed the report as inaccurate because you were not in the city when that happened."
"I was in Capri," nodded the dark prince. "Who saw me and where?"
"I do not remember exactly," admitted the general, "but I read it in one of the reports of the investigation of foreigners in the city inns. I could send for those reports if you wish."
"Do so," nodded Prince Zinan.
Confusion spread over Naveena's face as the general's comments gave some credence to the prince's concern. Until then, she had assumed that the Talent had been warping his perception of reality, and his insistence that someone was impersonating him was complete fiction.
"May I see your notes?" she asked.
Prince Zinan shoved the papers towards Naveena and continued to scan the quiet faces in the room. Naveena looked at the notes quickly, passing over everything but the mention of Prince Zinan, but when she got to the notes from Anatar, her face paled.
"What is it?" asked Prince Zinan. "You see something that upsets you."
"It is Zalman," answered Naveena. "No wonder our soldiers could never find him. He is in Anatar."
"Zalman?" frowned Prince Zinan. "Who is he, and why do we care where he is?"
"He is wanted for killing Princess Orenda," declared Naveena. "We have hunted for him for over fifteen years."
"He is your father," interjected General Wikner.
Naveena glared at the general and opened her mouth to lash out at him, but Prince Zinan spoke before she could form the words.
"My father?" scowled the dark prince. "Why does Borunda care about him? He was not royalty, and he never wielded the Talent. He is nothing. I want to know about this person who is impersonating me."
A soldier entered the room and handed some papers to General Ortega. Everyone watched as the general looked through the papers and pulled one out of the pile.
"Here it is," he said as he read the paper. "Three rooms were rented at the Royal Palm Inn by a merchant. The rooms were rented for three days, and there were eight men total sharing the rooms. It says that one of them was Prince Zinan, while another was a giant of a man."
"A giant of a man?" frowned Prince Zinan. "What was the name of this merchant?"
"Kerzi," replied the general. "Do you know him?"
"I know of him," nodded the dark prince. "Refresh my memory, General Wikner."
"Kerzi is a merchant who purchased nuts in Tarent and delivered them to Dulga," replied the general. "He came under suspicion because we found nuts by the side of the road where one of my patrols was ambushed. When he was questioned in Dulga, he only had two warriors with him. One of them was a giant of a man. As we were looking for a much larger party, Kerzi was allowed to leave with a load of cork. He was bound for Laborg."
"Only later did we discover that Kerzi had camped not far from the ambush site with nine warriors," nodded Prince Zinan. "They split up the following morning. The warriors managed to escape into Odessia. Isn't that right, General Ortega?"
"It is," the general nodded as he frowned. "We lost a lot of men following those six warriors, plus none of the scorpions ever returned."
"So this person that looks like you is traveling with the people who rescued King Caedmon?" asked Naveena.
"So it would appear," nodded Prince Zinan. "I was suspecting someone here in the palace of trying to betray me, but I think the reality is more sinister than I thought. The Arinites are behind this, but what do they hope to gain by impersonating me?"
"They could reek havoc with our soldiers and officers," General Ortega said with alarm. "Imagine if you walked into the heat of battle and ordered a surrender."
"That is not likely to occur," smirked the dark prince, "but your point is well taken. The problem is, no one has mentioned anything about any attempts to influence the army with the use of this impersonator. All I have are sightings, and they have all been in public places, usually inns."
"That does not sound like an impersonator," mused General Ortega. "It sounds more like someone who just happens to look like you. Such mistakes probably happen a lot. How many of the people who reported these sightings are really that familiar with your appearance?"
"It is more than a coincidence," General Wikner shook his head. "If all we had were Prince Zinan's reports from afar, I might buy the coincidence theory, but when we place this man with the party tha
t helped King Caedmon, it becomes something entirely different and more sinister."
"I agree," stated Naveena. "In the very least, the imposter was brought to Tarent to portray you, possibly to help with the escape, and this points right back to Arin."
"Could it be some distant relative of the prince?" asked one of the other advisors.
"There are no relatives," Naveena replied.
General Wikner's face clouded with thought. He rose and whispered to a waiting soldier and returned to his seat. The soldier dashed off and everyone looked at the general with an expectation of an explanation.
"I just sent for another file," the general explained. "There is something tickling my memory, and I want to verify my thoughts before I speak of them."
"What do we know about the others in this party?" asked General Ortega. "Can we identify any of them? The report from the inn describes them."
"Let me see the report," ordered the dark prince.
The report was sent along the table to the prince, and he studied it in silence for a few minutes.
"There are names here," shrugged the prince, "but I doubt that they are real names."
"Even if they are not real names," interjected Naveena, "it is worth knowing them. After all, Kerzi used the same name in several places."
"True," agreed the prince. "Kerzi is the only who registered with the innkeeper, but he picked up several names from conversations they had in the common room over the three days. Gunnar, Horst, and Kenra, he is sure about. They all wore beards, and the others seemed to speak about them a lot."
"Not much to go on," sighed General Ortega. "None of them mean anything to me."
The soldier returned and handed two piles of papers to General Wikner. He leafed through the first stack until he found what he was looking for. He placed that paper on the top of the first pile and began looking through the second pile.
"What are you looking for?" asked Prince Zinan.
General Wikner took the top paper from the first stack and passed it along the table. The prince picked it up and started reading it.
"What is this?" he scowled. "I thought I dismissed this from our conversation. We are not concerned with Zalman."
Naveena reached over and tore the paper from the hands of the dark prince.
"Someone mentioned the possibility of a distant relative," General Wikner said. "Seeing as your father is still alive, I began thinking that he might have sired another son, but somewhere in the back of my mind, that report popped up. I decided to take a look at it."
"This is rubbish," snapped Naveena. "This person was not there that night. How can anyone take this report seriously?"
"What am I missing?" asked General Ortega. "Would someone tell the rest of us what is being discussed?"
"The night Princess Orenda was killed," explained General Wikner, "Zalman fled from the house. We hunted all over the city for him and questioned just about everyone. One person reported seeing him running along the shore cradling a newborn in his arms."
"Wouldn't that be prince Zinan?" asked General Ortega.
"No," General Wikner shook his head. "Prince Zinan was already safely in the hands of our soldiers."
"A twin?" gasped General Ortega. "That would explain the impersonator, but where has he been all these years?"
"The report is trash," insisted Naveena. "The woman was probably hysterical. She was not even there that night. How could she possibly know?"
"That is the second time that you mentioned that she could not have been there that night," Prince Zinan said with suspicion. "How do you know that, Naveena? Were you there when my mother died?"
Naveena swallowed hard and quickly shook her head. "No. I just remember that night very well. It was a terrible night for me."
"Here we go," General Wikner said triumphantly. "These are reports of sightings of Zalman over the years. In more than one of them, they state that he had a young boy with him. The boy is not mentioned in every report, but through the years, the boy has been sighted on many occasions, and his age kept increasing, which leads one to believe that it is the same boy over the years."
"A brother?" Prince Zinan said with confusion in his eyes. "Is that possible?"
"No," Naveena shook her head. "It is preposterous."
"I guess the only person who would know for sure," commented General Ortega, "would be Zalman himself. It's a pity that the Arinites have him."
"Perhaps I should go ask him," mused the dark prince.
"You must not," shouted Naveena. "Zalman must be killed on sight."
Prince Zinan stared at his advisor with wonder. He stood up and waved his hands dismissively.
"The meeting is over," the prince announced. "All of you leave. I need to speak with Naveena alone."
The advisors rose and shuffled out of the room. The dark prince glanced at the door, and it slammed shut.
"You will explain your outburst," commanded Prince Zinan as he placed his hands on her shoulders. "Why must Zalman die before I speak to him? Are you hiding some dirty, dark secret that you need to keep even from me?"
"No," Naveena shook her head vigorously. "Don't you understand? The whole idea is foolish, but it is dangerous to even consider it. You must never allow the thought of a twin to take hold in this palace. Don't you understand what that could lead to? Do you really want a contender for the throne when King Garrick dies?"
Prince Zinan's eyebrows rose in consideration of her words. He nodded slowly as he released his grip on her.
"Now I understand your concern," sighed the dark prince. "For a moment I thought your motives were more sinister. Rest easily. My brother, if he does exist, will die as soon as I find him. As for Zalman, he will not die until after I have learned his secrets."
"You mustn't go to Anatar," warned Naveena. "It is too dangerous. Traveling about the world may end up getting you killed, but that is especially so in Arin. After we held King Caedmon, they would think nothing of killing you."
"My dear wisper," smiled Prince Zinan. "I can travel anywhere I want. No one is going to kill me. I am invincible."
"No one is invincible," retorted Naveena.
"For once," grinned the dark prince, "you are wrong. A blade would melt before it entered my body. An arrow would merely fall to the ground. Go ahead and try. I give you my permission. Take that knife you keep hidden in your boot and plunge it into my heart. Do it!"
"No," Naveena shook her head. "I could never hurt you. You know that."
"Sometimes I wonder," replied the dark prince. "You have a new task, Naveena. I want you to identify everyone who has traveled with Kerzi. Use whatever resources you need, but identify them all. Their actions have marked them as my enemies, and I want them destroyed."
* * *
Audric came out of the bushes carrying a small bowl of bright red berries. He looked to where Jared was practicing drawing the Talent out of Prince Antion and smiled with pride. He walked over to the two men and sat cross-legged on the beach.
"Come sit by me," he said. "I have another lesson for both of you to ponder."
Prince Antion and Jared turned and sat down facing their master. The old man handed the bowl of berries to Prince Antion.
"Eat these," instructed Audric.
"But these are…" objected Prince Antion.
"Trust in me," interrupted Audric. "Do this for Jared. Eat the berries."
Prince Antion stared at the old man for a long time before he complied. He picked a berry out of the bowl and ate it.
"Do not play with your food," scowled Audric. "Eat them all and be quick about it."
"Do you know what these berries are?" asked the Arin prince.
"I know perfectly well what they are," replied Audric. "Eat them."
Prince Antion inhaled sharply and slowly exhaled. He grabbed a handful of berries and stuffed them into his mouth. He grabbed another handful and almost had them to his mouth when his body was shook with spasms. The prince's face contorted in pain and he keeled over, h
is body shuddering violently.
"What is wrong with him?" Jared cried in alarm.
"He has eaten poisoned fruit," Audric said calmly.
"Poisoned?" frowned Jared. "I do not understand. Why would you give him poisoned fruit?"
"To teach you a lesson," replied Audric. "You can remove the poison from his body by using the Talent, but in doing so you will become poisoned. What will you do?"
"Will the poison go away?" asked Jared.
"No," replied the old man. "If the poison is not removed from his body within several minutes, he will die."
"How could you do such a thing?" cried Jared. "You are evil, and the Talent will destroy you for this."
"Perhaps," shrugged the old man, "but that does nothing to solve the current problem. You have the ability to save Prince Antion. I wonder what you will do about it?"
For Jared the choice was clear. He focused the Talent on Prince Antion. He could feel the poison running through his friend's blood, and the feeling revolted him. He placed his hand on Prince Antion's quivering leg and closed his eyes. Jared could actually feel the poison flowing into his own body, and he began to swoon, but he refused to succumb. He concentrated on drawing every last bit of the poison out of Prince Antion's body, and then he collapsed on the sand.
Audric opened his pouch and removed several green leaves. He placed the leaves in his mouth and began chewing them as he placed a hand on Jared's head. He began drawing the poison out of Jared and into his body. In a few minutes he was done. He sat quietly waiting for the others to recover. Prince Antion was the first to sit up. He stared at the old man and his mouth opened to form a question. Audric held up his hand for silence, and the prince obeyed. A moment later, Jared sat up. His eyes were dark with anger, but he said nothing.
"There are several important lessons in today's demonstration," Audric said calmly. "Do you know what they are?"
"Never eat poisonous fruit?" Prince Antion answered sarcastically.
Audric did not respond to the prince's joke. He sat patiently waiting for a proper answer.
"The Talent can remove poisons from a body?" asked the prince.
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