Edeard discarded his concealment. Salrana jumped in shock. Her mind radiated guilt.
'You,' Edeard said sourly. 'I should have guessed. I really should.'
'But you didn't, did you?' Ranalee said disdainfully; she pulled her own satin negligee up, and combed some of her dishevelled hair back into place. 'I thought you had left the city.'
'Yes. A lot of people made that mistake. Your friends. Your family. Your fellow conspirators.'
Ranalee's eyes widened. Surprise shone there at first, then she became alarmed as her directed longtalk questions went unanswered. 'What have you done?' she hissed.
'They won't answer you. Not now. Not ever.'
'Father?' she gasped.
'The Lady will bless his soul, I'm sure. I doubt anyone else will.'
'Bastard!' Ranalee was trembling, on the verge of tears.
'You were planning worse for me, far worse.'
Ranalee recovered to glare at him defiantly. 'So what do you plan for me?'
'Nothing. Because you are nothing without Owain and your family. Owner of a bordello. What is that? Not anything.'
Salrana took a hesitant step forwards. 'Edeard—'
'Not a word from you. I don't blame you. Do you know what they did to your mind, what this vixen can do?' Even as he spoke he could sense the difference in Salrana's unshielded thoughts. The harshness that flowed where once there had only been contentment and geniality.
'Of course she does,' Ranalee gloated. Her arm went protectively round Salrana, who leant in closer, seeking reassurance. 'I showed her a real life.'
'They used your anger with me for abandoning you. This… this agent of Honious, came for you when you were vulnerable. It was no accident she met you. It was not chance. I know what she's like, Salrana. She has a perverted skill that can twist your very thoughts, she warps what should be something beautiful into something diseased. It's not love you feel for her, it is a wretched corruption of the affection your true self can experience.'
'No,' Salrana interrupted with soft insistence. 'It was I who found Ranalee.'
'They exploited you. Her. Owain. The rest. Their only interest is in your past, our background. Lady, you're just another weapon to use against me. You're supposed to lure me out of the city if the ambush failed, remember?'
Salrana gave Ranalee a startled look, then faced Edeard again. 'I wouldn't have done it.'
'Ha!' Edeard closed his eyes to mute the pain seeing her like this brought him. 'You would. Please, Salrana, I can help you. There are others who can show you how they abused your thoughts, how this evil whore bewitched you.'
'So you can do what?' Salrana snapped, suddenly angry. 'Take Ranalee from me? Leave me with nothing? Again?'
'That's not—'
'I am myself.'
'They were going to breed you. In the Lady's name, you know that's not right.'
'Your strength made you the Waterwalker,' Ranalee said. 'Your power attracted Kristabel to you, and now you are part of a Grand Family, you have their wealth and estate at your disposal. Your children will be born to a privilege no one in your pitiful Ashwell could ever comprehend. Why can't Salrana have children that are strong? Why can't Salrana have children who will enjoy that same cushion of money?'
'But you're not giving her that,' Edeard said furiously. 'You exploited how vulnerable she was; you turned her away from everything she was.'
'I showed her what Makkathran society could offer her once you'd tired of her,' Ranalee said triumphantly. 'Marriage, children, family; those are our customs; customs started by Rah himself. Our arrangements are practical and beneficial, deceiving no one. Who in Honious are you to judge that?'
Edeard nearly struck her. But to do that would be to grant her victory. 'I will not give up on you,' he told Salrana. 'What she has done to you is wrong and evil, and whenever the day comes that you realize that, I will be there for you. I swear that upon the Lady.'
Now it was Salrana who regarded him contemptuously. The expression was so similar to the one on Ranalee's face it unnerved him. She took Ranalee's hand and carefully placed it on her bare breast. 'You have your life. I have mine. Even in your world of simplistic morality I can live how I choose. And I choose this. I choose Ranalee: my lover, my mistress.'
Edeard glared at Ranalee, who returned a malicious smile.
'This is not over,' he said. It was quite feeble, he knew, but he simply couldn't think what else to do.
Why can't she see what she's become? Or perhaps she really can. Lady!
'You won today,' Ranalee told him in a mocking tone. 'Show a little nobility. The Waterwalker would.'
Edeard barged out of the door, not bothering to conceal himself.
* * * *
Edeard returned to the Culverit ziggurat and climbed the stairs without anyone noticing him. Even now he felt a shudder of trepidation that this would all turn out to be a fevered dream, that Kristabel… That seeing her would shatter the illusion. Good old Ashwell optimism.
Stupid. This is real now. I know that.
When he reached the tenth floor he drew up his courage, and went to the room Kristabel had claimed as her study. It was bare apart from the desk and chair. Even the curtains had been taken down as it slowly changed shape to the one she and Edeard had decided on. Bigger windows. Brighter, white lighting rosettes. He knew the walls were shifting inwards so the lounge next door could be longer even though the process was so slow his eyes couldn't see the change. Just before he'd left, Kristabel had remarked on how the tenth floor was already different from the home she'd lived her whole life in. He humoured her by agreeing, because she was so excited. And happy.
Now she was bent over the desk, her quill pen scribbling furiously as always. Her beautiful face was wrinkled as she studied yet another thick ledger containing family accounts. Three high piles of similar ledgers were propped up on the side of the desk.
My wife.
'You look bored,' he told her.
Kristabel started. Then she smiled at Edeard as he stood in the doorway. 'I never even sensed you,' she exclaimed. 'Are you creeping up on me? And why are you here? What about the bandits? You couldn't have found them already.'
'No we didn't. But I know who and where they are now. They'll just have to keep for another day. I wanted to be home with my beautiful wife.'
She hurried over with a big smile on her face, and kissed him welcome. 'That's so sweet. Finitan will kill you, though, it was hugely important.'
Edeard put his arms round her. Not wanting to let go. Ever. He took a look out of the window, across the hortus to the fabulous living city beyond. 'Others have tried.'
She frowned, and poked him in the chest. 'Are you all right? You seem… tired.'
'No. I'm fine. It's just that today I realized there are some things you can never fix no matter how hard you try.'
Kristabel kissed him again. 'But I know you, you'll just keep on trying. That's what makes you, you. That's why I love you.'
* * * *
THE END OF THE VOID TRILOGY BOOK 2
About the Author
Peter F. Hamilton is the author of numerous short stories and novels, including Fallen Dragon and the acclaimed epic of the Night’s Dawn trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God). Mr. Hamilton lives in England.
The Temporal Void (ARC) Page 76