Shapers of Darkness: Book Four of Winds of the Forelands (Winds of the Forelands Tetralogy)

by David B. Coe

  “Why would he have killed Carden?” she asked, speaking more to herself than to Kalyi.

  “Uncle Numar thinks he’s a traitor. He may be part of the conspiracy.”

  Chofya nodded. If all of this were true, that would be the only explanation that made any sense. Was it possible then that this alliance with Braedon was part of the Qirsi plot? Was the siege as well? Pronjed had come to her recently, hoping that she would help him push the regent toward the alliance. He said at the time that he sought to strengthen the realm so that when Kalyi came to power Aneira would have nothing to fear from its enemies. Had that been a lie? If he possessed this power, and had truly sought to enlist her as an ally, why didn’t he try to control her thoughts as he had Tradden’s?

  “None of this makes any sense, Kalyi,” she said, trying to convince herself. “Even if he was with the conspiracy, I’m not certain that he had any reason to kill your father. And not long ago he came to me hoping I would help him with something. When I refused, he simply accepted it and never raised the matter with me again. If he had this power surely he would have used it against me.”

  “He tried to use it on Uncle Numar. Uncle is sure of it.”

  Could the regent have been lying about all of this, trying to turn Kalyi against the archminister? Or had Pronjed decided that Chofya wasn’t important enough to risk using his powers against her?

  Ultimately, none of this was as important as Kalyi’s initial question. The young queen seemed to realize this as well.

  “Just because he doesn’t have that power, doesn’t meant that he won’t try to kill Uncle Numar,” Kalyi said. “They don’t like each other.”

  That much Chofya knew already. “No, they don’t,” she admitted. Not that the regent needed Pronjed thirsting for his blood. There would be thousands of soldiers wearing the uniforms of Dantrielle, Tounstrel, Orvinti, and Kelt, just as avid for his death as any Qirsi, loyal or not.

  “If Uncle Numar dies, will Uncle Henthas become my regent?”

  She could see the fear in Kalyi’s eyes, and knew that it was mirrored in her own. “Not if I can help it. The other dukes don’t trust him. They wouldn’t—”

  It came to her so suddenly that she actually shuddered. What an idiot she had been, dismissing Numar’s siege as if it were foolishness and nothing more. Pronjed had asked her to help him, and obviously she hadn’t been willing to do that. Rather, she should have insisted that Numar call off his attack on Dantrielle, or at the very least, send Henthas in his stead. The realm needed its regent. Kalyi needed him, but more to the point, Solkara needed him.

  If Numar was killed or captured, his army overwhelmed by Dantrielle and its allies, it would mark the end of the Solkaran Supremacy. Chofya didn’t care much for power, at least not anymore. Even if she had, it hardly would have mattered. With Carden dead, she was nothing. They called her the queen mother, but it was a title without authority. Had it not been for Kalyi, she wouldn’t have cared at all for House Solkara and its damned supremacy. She still thought of Noltierre as her home, and would gladly have taken Kalyi there to live out their days in peace. But for better or worse, Kalyi was Solkaran, the sole heir to Carden the Third. If Numar died, she would have to look to the Council of Dukes to protect her daughter from Henthas. And if the supremacy fell that recourse would be denied her as well. Leadership of House Solkara would cease to be a concern of the other houses. She and she alone would be all that stood between the Jackal and her daughter. For Henthas would always see Kalyi as a threat to his ambitions, no matter how limited they might be. As Carden’s child, she had a legitimate claim to the family seat, one that might convince soldiers in the Solkaran army to side with her in any dispute that arose between them. Kalyi could renounce all claims to leadership of the house, and the two of them could return to Cestaar’s Hills. But that might not appease the man. There was nothing to stop her from going back on her word, he would say. Until she was dead, he would always see her as a rival.

  “They wouldn’t what, Mother?”

  Chofya shook her head. “What?”

  “You were speaking of the other dukes. You were telling me that they wouldn’t do something, but then you just stopped.”

  “I’m sorry, child. I was just going to say that the dukes wouldn’t allow Henthas to become regent. They’d find someone else to help you rule the realm.”

  “Then why do you look so scared?”

  Clever child. She was so young, and yet it seemed that the world around her was demanding that she grow up before her time. Who was Chofya to fight such a powerful tide? “Because if by some chance Numar is defeated and Solkara loses the crown, the Council of Dukes will be powerless to help us.”

  “Do you think that could happen?”

  “I don’t—” She pressed her lips thin. That was the trouble with sharing hard truths with a child so young. How did one go back to lies after doing so? “Yes, I’m afraid I do.”

  “Then we should speak with the captains.”

  Clever indeed. “Why, love?”

  “Because if Numar is gone, and the dukes can’t help us, we’ll need to have the army on our side.”

  Chofya had to smile. She was Carden’s child through and through, and though Chofya had stopped loving her husband long before his death, she took pride in seeing his strength in the girl. “They might not side with us, Kalyi. Most soldiers won’t willingly follow a woman, much less a young girl.”

  “I’m queen,” she said, as if the matter were so easily settled. “I’m Father’s heir. They’ll help me.”

  If it were put to the men that way, they just might. “I’ll speak with them tonight,” Chofya said.

  “I want to go with you.”

  “No, Kalyi.”

  “But—”

  Chofya raised a finger to the girl’s lips. “I know that you’re wise beyond your years. But the soldiers still see you as a child. If you go with me, they won’t take us seriously; we could do ourselves more harm that good.” She leaned forward and kissed Kalyi’s forehead. “Trust me with this.”

  Kalyi twisted her mouth, looking unhappy. But after a moment she gave a small nod. “I hope Numar wins,” she said. “Then we won’t have to worry about any of this.”

  Long after Chofya and her brat left his chamber Henthas continued to read through Numar’s message—the passages he hadn’t shared with them, as well as those he had.

  “It’s but a matter of time before we’re surrounded,” his brother had written. “We will make one last effort to take the castle, sparing nothing in our assault, but I feel certain that we will fail.”

  Henthas saw no benefit in reading this to the girl or her mother, for it led directly to the heart of Numar’s missive.

  If the supremacy can be preserved—and I’m not sure that it can—it falls to you, brother, to lead it. The five hundred men who remain with you in Solkara will not be enough, and though I expect Dantrielle will let the soldiers under my command go free after he has disarmed them, they will not be enough either. Your best hope, I believe, lies with the men I’ve sent north, to Kentigern. If they can be called back before they march on to the Eibitharian Moorlands, they can preserve House Solkara’s hold on the crown. If not, you will have nothing left but the dukedom.

  There is probably nothing I can say that will convince you to spare the girl. I believe that she may still prove useful to you, even if you are relegated to being duke of a fallen house. But if you truly wish to be duke yourself and to pass leadership of House Solkara on to any sons you may beget, you will have to kill her. Beware of Chofya, for she’s clever and respected by the realm’s other dukes. And beware Pronjed. I’m convinced that he is a traitor who possesses mind-bending magic.

  I don’t expect that we will meet again, Henthas. I know that we have had our differences in the past, but we are both sons of Tomaz the Ninth. Keep our house strong.

  Numar went on to write that he would attempt to send another message the following day, to inform Henthas of how
his final offensive had gone, but the duke knew that the letter he held in his hand was the last he would receive from his younger brother. Numar might not have been the fool they all thought he was, but neither was he a master of military planning. If Tebeo and his allies had him surrounded, he’d be dead within a matter of days.

  More to the point, like the older brothers Renbrere, and even like their father, who truly had been a genius, Numar had always been obsessed with the supremacy. He had killed Grigor so that he might lead it. He had as much as given his life defending it. And even now, with one foot in Bian’ realm, he was trying to tell Henthas how he ought to preserve it. Well, Henthas had no intention of doing anything of the sort.

  So long as he fought to hold the throne, the other dukes would do all they could to destroy his armies and kill him. If he relinquished the crown, however, if he allowed this damned supremacy to die at long last, they would leave him alone. They might even let him keep the dukedom. Yes, they hated him. Perhaps they feared him still, though Numar and Grigor and Carden had all succeeded in diminishing House Solkara so that it no longer struck terror in the hearts of those who would oppose it, as it had when Tomaz ruled. But if he was just another duke they would believe him harmless, or at least less dangerous than Carden and Grigor had been.

  Henthas tossed Numar’s message aside. As far as he was concerned, the supremacy was over, and good riddance to it. The question that confronted him now was what to do about the girl-queen. Regardless of the fate of the supremacy, she would still be the nominal leader of House Solkara. Of course, a child could no more lead the house as duchess than she could rule the realm, and so the need for a regency would remain, and he would be the logical choice to take Numar’s place in that role. Chofya would oppose him, but where else could she turn? She herself had no claim to authority, and with all his brothers dead there was no one else.

  But did he want to be regent, or did he prefer to kill Kalyi now? It didn’t take him more than a moment to understand that his choices were as limited as Chofya’s. He would move against the girl eventually, but for now he could not. A good many of Solkara’s soldiers remained loyal to her, seeing her as Carden’s true heir. A few chafed at the idea of seeing their house led by a girl, but not enough yet to challenge her authority. If he killed her, they would turn on him. He needed first to win their trust, to convince them that in both temperament and ability, he was closer than anyone to their lost king. That would take some time.

  Pleased with himself for working all this out so quickly, the duke left his chambers for the great hall, where his supper would soon be served. There was a woman who was to meet him there, one of Chofya’s ladies, as it happened, and he didn’t wish to keep her waiting too long.

  Just as Henthas had expected, there was no message from Numar the following day. Shortly before the ringing of the prior’s bells, Chofya and Kalyi arrived at his quarters, eager for word of the siege.

  “I’m afraid I’ve heard nothing,” he told them, standing in the doorway, blocking their entry to his chamber.

  Chofya’s expression didn’t change—clearly she had expected this—but Kalyi looked disappointed, and just a bit scared.

  She looked up at her mother. “Do you think—?”

  Chofya laid a hand on her shoulder, silencing her. “Thank you, my lord duke,” she said. “We won’t disturb you any further.”

  “Actually, my lady, I wish a word with you.” He nodded to one of the guards positioned outside his chamber. “If Her Highness would be so kind as to remain out here, this will only take a moment.”

  Once again Kalyi looked at her mother. This time there could be no mistaking the fear in her eyes.

  “It’s all right. Stay with the soldiers. I’ll be just inside.”

  The girl nodded, and Henthas backed away from the doorway, allowing Chofya to enter.

  “What is it you want?” she asked, once he had closed the door. She sounded impatient, but he felt certain that the chill in her voice was intended to mask her own apprehension.

  “Just to talk, my lady.” He faced her and smiled.

  She eyed him briefly, then crossed to the window, crossing her arms over her chest as if cold. She really was quite lovely. Black hair, black eyes, olive skin. There could be no mistaking her for a woman of Solkara, but she was beautiful nevertheless. Carden had done well for himself, despite his many limitations.

  “What could we possibly need to discuss?”

  “Come now, Chofya. You’re an intelligent woman. You weren’t at all surprised to learn that I’d received no message today. Numar is on the verge of being defeated. If he’s not yet captured or dead, he will be soon. The supremacy is over and your daughter, who will soon be just duchess, will be needing a new regent.”

  She turned to face him. “And you think I’d trust you with that?”

  Henthas grinned. “Let’s pretend for a moment that you have other choices. Solkara will have just lost its hold on the throne, it will be led, at least in name, by a child, and a girl at that. What’s to keep Bistari, or Orvinti, or one of the other houses from taking our lands?”

  “The other houses wouldn’t do that.”

  “Wouldn’t they? They’ve hated us for centuries.”

  “Yes, well, the men of your family have seen to that, haven’t they?”

  “Indeed, none more so than your husband.”

  Chofya started to say something, then stopped herself, appearing to think better of it.

  “The point, my lady, is that Kalyi might be well served to have me standing beside her.” He gave a thin smile. “You hate me, and you’re afraid of me. So are the other dukes. Isn’t it possible that the fear I instill might prove a boon to the ambitions you harbor for your daughter?”

  “You’ll turn against her eventually, when it suits your purposes. Just as Grigor would have, just as Numar was going to.”

  His eyebrows went up. “You don’t miss much, do you?”

  “Not where my daughter is concerned.”

  “You’re right, I may turn against her. I can’t now, but there may come a time when I can, and I may well take that opportunity. But for now, we need each other. The fact of the matter is, you have no other choices. If you give the regency to someone from another house, the army may turn against you. And if I move against Kalyi now, they’ll turn against me.”

  She stared at him, her eyes narrowed, as if she were trying to discern from his appearance whether he could be trusted.

  “I’ve surprised you.”

  “You are unusually direct, my lord. I hadn’t expected that from a Renbrere.”

  “My brothers are all lost, my lady. The supremacy of my forebears is gone. I haven’t the heart for more games. The survival of our house is at stake, and I’ll do nothing to weaken us further.”

  “Very well, my lord. Allow me to think on it for a day or two. We’ll speak again.”

  It was probably as much as he could ask for just now. “Of course, my lady. In the meantime, if I hear anything new from Dantrielle, I’ll let you know.”

  She inclined her head slightly. “Thank you, my lord.” She crossed to the door, opened it, and stepped into the corridor. He saw Kalyi rush to her side, looking deeply relieved, as if she had expected Henthas to kill her mother right there in his chamber. A moment later, one of the guards closed the door again, leaving the duke to contemplate what had passed between them.

  Chofya had lived in the Solkaran court long enough to know how desperate he was. If he couldn’t be duke, and she refused to give him the regency, he’d have nothing left except the marquessate. No doubt she’d use this knowledge to try to control him, to make him agree to conditions another man would reject out of hand. He’d make a show of resisting her efforts to rein him in, but in the end he’d agree to whatever stipulations she proposed. He’d bide his time, allowing her to believe that she had succeeded in tethering him, letting her grow comfortable until her vigilance slackened. Then he’d deal with them both.


  Numar had warned him of Pronjed, but Henthas doubted that he’d ever see the archminister again. If Numar had been captured, so had the Qirsi. And if by some chance Pronjed did manage to escape, and Numar was correct in thinking him a traitor, he wouldn’t bother returning to a disgraced house, far removed from Aneira’s new royal city, wherever that was going to be. He’d join his fellow renegades in striking at the Eandi courts. Again, Henthas didn’t know where they might strike first, nor did he care. It wouldn’t be Solkara—a year ago maybe, but not anymore. That was fine with the duke. For now, Henthas cared only about his own survival. The conspiracy might threaten him eventually, and when they did, he would make certain that he was ready. But today, here in this castle, he was more concerned with a ten-year-old girl and her resourceful mother.

  He didn’t see Kalyi or Chofya that night at dinner, nor did he see the queen mother for the next two days. It almost seemed that she was avoiding him. No new messages arrived from Numar, but on the third morning, a messenger arrived wearing the colors of Dantrielle. Henthas, who had been informed of the man’s approach to the city, ordered the guards to escort the man to his chamber, but the messenger refused to enter the castle, demanding instead that the duke and queen be summoned to the castle gate. Descending the tower stairs and making his way across the courtyard to the outer gate, Henthas knew just what this meant. A messenger didn’t make such demands of members of a royal house.

  Somehow, Chofya and the girl were already at the gate when he arrived, though he had wasted no time in following the soldier from his own chamber. He gave the woman a puzzled look, but she barely glanced at him before facing the messenger again.

  “You may begin now,” she said. Kalyi stood in front of her, and Chofya had placed her hands on the girl’s shoulders. She almost appeared to be using her body to shield the queen from Henthas.

  “I’ve been sent by Tebeo, duke of Dantrielle, to inform you that Numar of Renbrere has failed in his attempt to take Castle Dantrielle and has been imprisoned for crimes against the realm. The duke of Dantrielle along with the dukes of Kett, Rassor, Tounstrel, and Noltierre have met in council and voted to end the Solkaran Supremacy. They have yet—”