"Father," Zarien prodded.
Emelen shouted at Tansen, "You tell him to stay out of this!"
"I've been telling him!" Tansen snapped back. "And if you ever hit him again—"
"He got in my way!"
"Don't ever hit him again," was all Tansen said.
Emelen evidently knew when it was wise to appease Tansen. Sounding far more exasperated than apologetic, he said, "I'm sorry I hit you, Zarien."
"I don't think it's broken," Zarien offered. Then he winced, "Hurts like all the Fires, though."
"Let that be a lesson to you," Tansen said.
Zarien demanded of him, "Are you really going to let this happen, father? This poor, scared, unarmed man, and Emelen angry enough to kill him before he has time to beg for mercy!"
Ronall felt humiliation wash over him at the boy's description of him. As if it even mattered, he realized that Tansen looked too young to be Zarien's father.
"No!" Jalilar screamed, flinging herself in front of Emelen as he moved towards Ronall again. "Don't! No!"
Emelen stopped, his expression growing even more awful as he said to her, "Are you telling me you're in love with him?"
"Him?" Her tone could not have been any less flattering. "No!"
Emelen seized her by the shoulders and said between gritted his teeth, "You are, aren't you? That's why you're so—"
"Fires of Dar, of course I'm not in love with him!" she shouted. "He's a weakling, a drunk, a lazy fool!"
"Then why—"
"Do you think I'd have let this useless coward touch me if I hadn't missed you so much?" Jalilar demanded of her husband. "If I hadn't wanted you so much, been so sure you were dead or about to die without me?"
"Jalilar..." Emelen sounded pained.
Ronall burned with shame as Jalilar continued, "Ronall means nothing to me! Less than nothing! Can't you understand how unhappy I was, to turn to him?"
Tansen, who was dabbing at the boy's gushing nose, jerked sharply in surprise, causing Zarien to grunt in pain.
"Dar have mercy," Ronall muttered, covering his face with his hands. "I really, truly, sincerely hate my life."
Tansen asked, "Jalilar, did you say Ronall?"
"I love you," Jalilar said fiercely to her husband. "Only you. I want to be with you. Only you."
"Did she say Ronall?" Tansen asked Ronall.
"Yes," Ronall admitted wearily. "I'm half-Valdan. Just kill me now and get it over with."
"No!" Jalilar shrieked again, rushing at Tansen now that she had Emelen under control.
"Calm down," Tansen told her. "No one's going to kill anyone."
"Oh, good," said Zarien, pressing a messy sleeve to his nose.
"Who is this?" Jalilar asked suddenly, staring at Zarien.
"My son," Tansen said. "He doesn't like killing."
"Travels in strange company, doesn't he?" Emelen said to no one in particular.
"You've taken a son," Jalilar murmured, momentarily distracted. Then she added in amazement, "A sea-born boy?"
"It's a long story," Tansen said, "and we have other things to discuss now."
"I'm Jalilar," she said to Zarien, extending her hands to him. "Now you and I are family, because Tansen was Josarian's bloodbrother."
Ronall stared stupidly while the boy, still bleeding profusely, took Jalilar's hands and murmured polite things.
"Josarian's blood..." Ronall's head started pounding. No, it wasn't possible. If Tansen was related to her through Josarian, then... "You're... Jalilar, are you saying Josarian was your..."
She flung a reply over her shoulder, not even bothering to look at him. "My brother."
"The Firebringer was your brother?" Ronall demanded.
"Yes," Tansen answered for Jalilar, who was busy embracing Zarien as a new relation.
"The Firebringer?" Ronall repeated in horrified shock. "I've been sleeping with the Firebringer's sister?"
Emelen punched him, knocking him down. "You been sleeping with my wife, you bastard!"
"No!" Tansen shouted, jumping between them. "Emelen, stop!"
"Stay out of this!" Emelen shouted back.
"No!" Jalilar screamed, abandoning Zarien to fling herself at Emelen again.
Ronall lay in the dirt and just wished they would all go away. No wonder Jalilar was so afraid of assassins, considering who her male relations were. And Ronall supposed the Society would be only too happy to kill anyone she cared about—including the drunken coward who'd been sleeping with her lately.
Damn her. Damn them all.
"No, Emelen," Tansen repeated. "You can't!"
"By the eight winds!" Zarien said, his voice muffled by his sleeve. "This is Torena Elelar's husband?"
Emelen froze and stared at Ronall, clearly stunned.
Tansen nodded to Zarien and said, "Exactly."
Emelen blurted, "Him?"
"Him." Tansen turned to look at Ronall. "Yes?"
Ronall returned his gaze uncertainly. "Yes."
"I know Torena Elelar," Jalilar said, staring at Ronall, too, now. "You're her husband?"
"Yes," Ronall repeated wearily.
Tansen expelled his breath in a rush. "We've had people looking everywhere for you. Or your body."
"Me? Why?" he asked, baffled.
"This is Toren Ronall." Emelen shook his head. "Wonderful." The shallah gave his wife a disgusted look.
"What does it matter who he is?" Jalilar asked Emelen.
"You had to pick him."
"Please, Emelen," Jalilar pleaded. "Try to understand."
"Let's not keep talking about this in front of Tansen and Zarien and... him," Emelen added with a dark glare at Ronall.
Getting teary, Jalilar said, "I... I can't let you hurt him or..."
"I won't," Emelen promised, sounding depressed. "Tansen will make sure of that. Now let's go inside."
"No, there's something else," Jalilar insisted.
"What?" Emelen asked warily.
"And... and he should know, too," Jalilar said, glancing at Ronall. "It's his right."
"What?" Emelen repeated with a frown.
"Oh, no," Tansen muttered.
"No," Ronall said, already guessing what Jalilar would say next.
"I'm going to have his child," she told her husband sadly.
Chapter Nine
A man's friends are always
more dangerous than his enemies.
—Najdan
By now, travel was sheer agony for Baran. Even Sister Velikar's noxious tisanes and chanting couldn't control the debilitating pain that consumed him, and he became exhausted so easily now that his pace was affected—his judgment, however, was not.
So he viewed Dulien's awkward overtures of friendship with amused skepticism. The tedious waterlord, having requested this private and secret truce meeting at a Sanctuary deep in the mountains, now sulked and scowled, as was his unattractive habit, while he spoke with Baran—who airily claimed that his own rather grim appearance these days was due to a recent illness from which he was now recovering.
Struggling with pain, fatigue, and the tedium of Dulien's conversation, Baran was relieved when the waterlord finally got to the point by saying, "Kiloran has killed Wyldon."
"Ah. Art lovers everywhere will be relieved to hear that." Baran added with a dramatic shudder, "Did you ever see any of Wyldon's water sculptures?"
Dulien scowled. "Kiloran tried to make it look like you did it."
"How enterprising of him."
"He thought you would be blamed."
"Well, yes," Baran said affably. "That would be the point of trying to make it look like I did it, wouldn't it?"
"But Wyldon's assassins say it was Kiloran, not you."
"Then they're smarter than I gave them credit for."
"It really wasn't you, was it?" asked Dulien.
"No."
"Kiloran wanted to discredit you within the Society."
"Perhaps, but I imagine he mostly just wanted Wyldon dead." Baran smi
led. "Besides, I thought that my marrying Mirabar had already discredited me within the Society."
Dulien leaned forward, his beady eyes alight with speculation. "You married her because you thought if you allied yourself with the Guardians, Tansen would let you live."
Baran leaned forward, too, and confided honestly, "I don't really think it's up to Tansen whether or not I live."
Dulien asked with ghoulish curiosity, "Can she kill you?"
"Mirabar?" Baran shook his head. "She's not going to try." He didn't usually tell so many truths in a row, but it amused him today.
"You're not claiming she loves you?" Dulien's incredulity made Baran laugh.
"Are you implying that I'm not lovable?"
"Does she know you vowed to kill her?"
"Yes. It made the wedding night a little awkward."
Dulien's eyes bulged. "So you've actually... You two have... You and she..."
"Was avid curiosity about my married life the reason you asked me to come here?" Baran asked.
The waterlord blinked. "No. Where was I?"
"I really couldn't say."
Dulien scowled again. "Did you know that as soon as the Valdani abandoned Cavasar, he killed the two waterlords who used to control the city's water?"
"He?" Baran prodded.
"Kiloran!"
"Oh, yes. Do forgive me. Go on."
"Now he's got that sycophant, Meriten, trying to wrest Abidan's and Liadon's territory from the Guardians."
"I gather that shallaheen are stabling sheep in the ruins of the twins' houses." Baran sighed and shook his head. "Does no one have any respect anymore?"
Dulien continued sulkily, "Kiloran also had Searlon openly helping Meriten."
"So I heard."
"And now..." Dulien paused dramatically. "Searlon has disappeared."
"Dead?" Baran asked with hopeful interest. Kiloran's favorite assassin had always been a shrewd and dangerous enemy.
Dulien shook his head. "No. Surely someone would boast of Searlon's death, if that were so. And Kiloran would certainly mourn him."
"True. So... Searlon's on some delicate mission for his master," Baran surmised, "and no one knows where or can guess what."
"It makes me nervous," Dulien admitted.
"I imagine it makes everyone nervous."
"It means there's something even more important to Kiloran than just the things we already know about," Dulien explained, as if Baran might somehow have failed to grasp this implication. "You know: helping Meriten reclaim the brothers' territory, destroying you, killing Tansen, accessing the mines of Alizar, get—"
"Yes, yes, you needn't go through the whole list, Dulien."
"Meriten is practically Kiloran's servant. So if Meriten gets that territory, it will be the same as Kiloran's having it." Dulien waited for Baran to agree with him. Baran merely gazed at him with a pretense of polite interest. Dulien continued angrily, "Kiloran's already got Cavasar, Kandahar and its territory, the Zilar River, the mines of Alizar, the Idalar River... Well, the Idalar River if you can't hold onto it. And having the Idalar will give him Shaljir. And now he's after Verlon's territory!"
"Verlon's territory? Really?"
"Attacks on Verlon's assassins. Many dead."
"Jagodan shah Lironi is making war on Verlon," Baran pointed out. "Surely that's why many are d—"
"Yes, yes, but Kiloran is attacking, too."
"How do you know?" He could already guess, but he wanted to be sure.
"A shir of Kiloran's was found at one of the massacres."
Oh, yes.
"Ah." Encouraging Dulien, Baran said, "Just like the initial attack on Wyldon's stronghold?"
"Precisely!"
"Very, very disturbing," he agreed gravely.
"And now a shir of Kiloran's has been found among Gulstan's slain men, too."
"My, my. Who's next?" Baran mused.
"Exactly!" Dulien pounced. "Kiloran wants it all!"
Oh, yes. This strategy had Tansen's name written all over it. Not that Tansen could write his name, of course. But this sort of calculated misdirection which was wasting the waterlords' energy and scattering their focus was precisely the sort of tactic Tansen at which excelled—and the sort of thing he had taught the Firebringer himself to do. Such tactics had enabled those two, with no help, to victoriously attack a hundred Outlookers in a fortress near Britar and free twenty shallah prisoners. Really, it was surprising that the other waterlords couldn't see that now.
Then again, considering what a fool Dulien was, and what a blood-thirsty hot-head Verlon was, perhaps it wasn't so surprising, after all. Gulstan, who was smarter than many waterlords, might have his doubts about the whole thing. However, Gulstan suspected Kiloran's ambition more than anyone else, so perhaps he believed exactly what Tansen wanted him to believe.
The most delightful aspect of all this, Baran thought, was that Kiloran surely knew what was going on, and it undoubtedly made him ache with impotent rage. Even if Kiloran suppressed his pride enough to admit to the other waterlords that Tansen had killed enough of his assassins to plant their shir all over Sileria, the damage was already done: suspicions were raised, accusations circulating, counterplots being hatched.
"So what do you want from me?" Baran asked Dulien. "Apart from the pleasure of my company today, I mean."
"Why did you marry Mirabar?"
"Her girlish laughter enchanted me."
Dulien scowled. "What promises did Tansen make you?"
"Actually, Tansen opposed the marriage. He lost his head and nearly tried to kill me. Right there on Sanctuary grounds."
Dulien looked shocked. "Tansen?"
"I don't think he likes me," Baran confided.
"No one likes you."
"That's not true. Sister Velikar adores me. And Vinn admits that he has become very attached to me."
Dulien made an impatient gesture. "Why are you with Josarian's loyalists? Why did you betray the Society?" He leaned forward again, his voice intense as he demanded, "What do you know that we don't?"
"Ahhh..." Baran leaned back in his chair, fighting a wave of dizziness. He needed Sister Velikar's attentions, but he decided he'd better finish this business first. "You think that Searlon's secret task may be to bring down other waterlords."
"Possibly."
Baran studied him with growing amusement. "You're afraid of what will happen if Kiloran has his way in this war."
Dulien nodded. "In all things."
"Kiloran ruling Sileria?"
"Yes!"
"Would that be so bad?" Baran asked curiously. "He's ruled the Society, after all, since before you and I became waterlords."
"But there were always the Valdani to keep him check. He always... needed the Society. Needed the rest of us."
"And now?" Baran prodded.
"Now, if he can destroy Josarian's loyalists, what will Kiloran need with the rest of us once the fighting is over?"
"When Tansen and Mirabar are dead, I'm dead, the Guardians are all dead, and Josarian's cause is just a memory."
Dulien nodded. "Kiloran's already killing other waterlords and taking over their territories."
"First, Cavasar," Baran mused. "Then, Wyldon." Smiling maliciously, he added, "And, of course, there's the Zilar River... which you've always wanted, if memory serves."
His expression dark with envious fury, Dulien said, "And those are just the things we're certain about! What about Verlon's accusations? What about the shir found among Gulstan's men? What about the Shaljir River, which Meriten will get for him? What happens when you're dead and nothing stands between Kiloran and the Idalar River, nothing between Kiloran and the city of Shaljir?" Dulien pounded his fist on the table and shouted, "He will get rid of us all, I tell you! We will be nothing but a threat to him after you and Tansen and Mirabar are dead!"
"Yes, yes, I see your point."
"Why are you with them?" Dulien demanded.
"Do you want to be with them?" Baran asked w
ith interest. He enjoyed imagining Tansen's reaction when he heard that a waterlord wanted his friendship. Surely even Tansen's face would be vivid with surprise at such news. When Dulien didn't reply, Baran prodded, "Do you?"
Dulien shrugged sulkily. "I want to know what the circumstances of our friendship would be."
"In other words, can the waterlords rule their territories without interference after Kiloran is dead?"
"Yes."
Just when you think you've seen everything...
Dulien was an even bigger fool than he had realized. Baran asked, "What about Verlon? Does he want new friends, too?"
"Verlon says he has already reached out to someone."
"Who?" Who is there besides me?
"He won't say who," Dulien grumbled. "But he believes that, with this ally, he can protect himself from Kiloran." He frowned a moment later and added, "And from Tansen and the Guardians, too."
"Well, well." Baran wondered who Verlon believed had that kind of power. "What about Gulstan?"
"Gulstan says that you are an unpredictable madman and I'm a fool to approach you."
"He's right." Gulstan might be comically fat, but he was no fool.
"Even so," Dulien added, "Gulstan wants to know what you say today."
"Tell him I miss his keen wit and handsome figure."
"You hate Kiloran."
"Who told you?"
"You've done what you've done because of that," said Dulien.
"True."
"You believe that if he wins now, you will never have a chance to destroy him. So you're trying to help them defeat him now. That's why you're with them, isn't it?"
Terribly pleased, despite the pain that was now making him sweat like a nervous bridegroom, Baran replied, "Yes, I think you'll all be extra waterlords if the Society wins. Fire and water may be enemies, but they can probably share the future in Sileria, if they really want to. Whereas Kiloran will certainly wipe out all the weaker waterlords once he no longer needs them."
He didn't believe it for a moment. Tansen and the Guardians would let no waterlords survive this war. And Kiloran wasn't reckless enough to kill the other waterlords—not unless they became the sort of intense nuisance that Wyldon had become.
Yes, Dulien, Verlon, Gulstan, and whoever else was experiencing misgivings had it all wrong. They were making a huge mistake, because Kiloran was still their friend, and Tansen and the Guardians would always be their enemies. If any waterlords betrayed Kiloran now, they would destroy themselves.
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