Dragon Prince 03 - Sunrunner's Fire

by Melanie Rawn

  “I think you’ll approve of my method of execution,” he responded grimly.

  She nodded, satisfied. “So Pol knows all of it now.” Her gaze sharpened. “Even my part, and Ostvel’s?”

  “Not that he killed Ianthe.”

  “Don’t ever tell him.”

  “As far as he’s concerned, she died in the Fire.” He paced to the windows, bracing his fists on the ledge. “You know, Tobin, if Masul had won Princemarch, I would have had to go to war—and with enemies I hadn’t yet guessed at. I owe Maarken and Hollis more than they’d ever acknowledge. Without them, there would have been terrible battles and thousands would have died. Instead. . . .” He shrugged again. “We have an intimate little war. Only one of them will emerge from it alive. They’re on equal footing now, Tobin. Both young, strong, and powerful, with exactly the same blood-claim through their mother. . . .”

  “If it came to war, our people would fight. They’d insist on fighting for you and Pol.”

  “Why should thousands suffer for the sake of a few? When I vowed never to raise my sword again in battle, nobody heard that I vowed the same thing for my people.” He turned to her. “To defend them from attack, yes. But if we are ever attacked, my incompetence will have caused it. I’d have no right to ask them to go to war for a fool.

  “I won’t ask it now, either. Because I was a fool years ago. Somehow, in spite of my stupidity, I gained a son who’s my pride and my hope. What I did at Feruche is my responsibility. It shames me that Pol is suffering for what I did. But, cold as it may sound, better him than the men and women who’re sworn to march out and die if I order it.”

  “You’ve always had too much conscience,” she observed. “You’d fight Ruval yourself if you could, wouldn’t you?”

  “It’s not my fight. I’m insignificant. I’m only the High Prince. Pol’s Sunrunner and diarmadhi both. I envy him, if you want the truth.” He gave a rueful smile. “Not for the battle he must fight that I can’t, but because I’m too old, I haven’t his gifts, and I’m not even in the running to try.”

  “Ah, so you’re ancient, decrepit, useless, and powerless,” she mocked. “You’ll excuse me if I don’t agree.”

  “You can hardly do otherwise. You’re six winters older than I am.” He sank into a chair and frowned. “Damn it, where’s Arlis?”

  “Didn’t sleep much, did you?”

  “Enough.”

  “I’d take bets you won’t be able to eat a bite.”

  “Fainting from hunger isn’t in the plan for today.”

  She leaned forward eagerly. “Then you have plans. Tell me.”

  He sighed. “Tobin, you’re my sister and I love you dearly. I honor your opinions and your wits, and I’ve relied on your counsel for years. Your marriage brought me my best friend. You’ve supported me, schemed for me, and given me absolute honesty all your life.”

  “And if I don’t shut my mouth and get out of here, you’ll have me forcibly removed.” She came to him and took his face between her hands. “We’re not as young as we used to be, I’ll admit. But I think we’ve held up pretty well, all things considered. I love you, too, little brother. More than that, despite my irritating questions, I trust you.” She kissed his brow tenderly. “You’re my brother and my prince. So do what you must. Whatever it is, it will be the right thing.”

  He closed his eyes under the caress, wearier than he would have shown to anyone but her. “I’m glad someone thinks so.”

  “Those who know you could think nothing else.”

  Rohan looked up. “Oh, but you were right to begin with, you know. We could have avoided the whole sordid mess by killing them outright. I should have killed Masul days before I actually did. But I got forced into a position where I had to behave as a barbarian, not as a civilized prince. And now I’ve gotten Pol into the same fix.”

  “The circumstances are hardly civilized,” she reminded him, fingers resting lightly on his shoulders. “What’s civilized about sorcery?”

  “But Pol still must choose between the two—prince or savage.”

  “He’s your son. You and Sioned raised him. Lleyn and Chadric and Audrite fostered him. Urival and Morwenna trained him. You told me you’re sure of him because you have to be. I tell you now, Rohan, that you’re sure of him because of who he is. Your faith in him is your faith in yourself—and I’ve rarely seen you lacking in that. And if you do have doubts right now, please recall that the rest of us do not.” She smiled down at him. “Do us the honor of believing us, please?”

  He couldn’t help smiling back. “Now I remember why I long ago forgave you for the torment you made of my childhood.”

  “Torment? Oh, you mean like this?”

  Rohan yelped as she tweaked his ear. “Stop that! I take it all back, you’re as much of a monster now as you were then!”

  “And you’ve gotten stuffy, pompous, and boring!” She attacked his ribs and in the next moment they were rolling on the floor, tickling each other and giggling like the children they had not been in forty years.

  If Arlis was slack-jawed at seeing the royal siblings behave as if they had never left the schoolroom, Chay was not. He surveyed the battle and commented, “They must be mellowing—neither of them fights as dirty as they used to.” Then he gestured to the squire to place the tray on a table and proceeded to help himself to Rohan’s breakfast. “By the way,” he went on as the pair got in a last few scores, “if anybody’s interested, Miyon’s packing up.”

  Both sat up at that, gasping for breath. “Who does he think he is?” Tobin demanded, while Rohan exclaimed, “Leave me a crumb or two, Chay!”

  His sister stared at him. “Doesn’t it worry you?”

  “Not at all.” He got to his feet, extending a hand to help her up. She took it, gathered her legs under her—and sat back down hard as he let her fingers slip from his. “Serves you right. You and those damned nails of yours.” He rubbed his side.

  “Never mind that,” she snapped. “What are you going to do about Miyon?”

  “Have Sioned ask him in her sweet inimitable way why he intends to miss the proceedings. If his answer amuses me enough, I might even let him leave.” He claimed his breakfast tray and carried it to the bed. Seating himself, he began munching on a marsh apple.

  “Rohan, you know he’s behind much of this,” Tobin insisted. “You can’t just let him go!”

  “Don’t worry,” Chay soothed. “I don’t think any answer would be amusing enough. Unless he admits flat out that he’s sure Ruval’s going to lose.”

  “Exactly,” said Rohan. “Because Pol said something else last night. You recall Meiglan’s hysteria? It’s a bit complicated, but she recognized Marron as having met with her father—who also foisted off Mireva on her as a second maidservant. I don’t know if Miyon knows that his own daughter gave him to us, but I don’t think he wants to wait around here in any case.”

  Tobin frowned worriedly. “If he does know, the girl’s life is at risk.”

  “I don’t think so,” Rohan murmured. “Not when Pol hears.”

  Chay blinked. “He can’t possibly want to marry her!”

  “What can we do to stop him?” Tobin fretted.

  “Plenty! She’s the bastard of a lying, scheming, power-hungry—”

  “So,” Rohan said very quietly, “is Pol.”

  Sioned had spent a weary dawn sitting on the edge of Princess Milar’s fountain in the early sunshine. As she had suspected, farad-h’im from Dorval to Goddess Keep itself had heard Ruval’s starlit claim and challenge. And their reactions distilled to a single truth: If this man wins, there will be war.

  At least they all realized it. There was unity among Sunrunners such as there had not been since Andrade’s death. And how it would gall Andry to know that they rallied in support of Pol, not him.

  She splashed water on her face to banish fatigue, plunged her hands over and over into the coolness. Pol had told them last night that he would ride to Rivenrock at sunset to face
the challenge. She had plenty of time between now and then to—to do what? Nothing. If it had been necessary to construct the Sunrunner half of the starfire dome, she would have drilled Maarken and Hollis all day in the technique. But Rohan’s neutralization of Mireva had canceled the need. Pol had spent part of yesterday reading the Star Scroll and would return to it today. If he asked, she would help. But if he did not ask, she would not offer. Rohan was right; he must do this on his own. It was his testing ground as a prince, as a Sunrunner, as a man.

  She ranged out on sunlight once more, out to Rivenrock whence the challenge had come. Measures of flower-strewn Desert stretched below her, the very trail she had ridden thirty years ago this spring. She lingered over the exact spot where she had first seen Rohan, and again saw herself: the untried Sunrunner who had been ordered to marry a prince glimpsed in Fire and Water. The sight of her vision-made-flesh riding toward her across the sere and forbidding landscape had taken her breath away. He could still do that to her sometimes. She could still feel the first rush of joyful, bemused excitement at his presence. With him she had gone places she had never dreamed of going. It’s a long journey we’ve had, my love, she thought. We’ve walked beside each other almost every step of the way.

  Rivenrock Canyon was empty as far as she could tell. But Ruval would be holed up in a cave to escape the day’s heat—and prying eyes. Another memory touched her, of the first time she had ever been inside a dragon cave. It had been at the last Hatching Hunt, after she and Rohan had kept Maarken and his twin brother Jahni from a scorching by a terrified little hatchling. Shell shards and slender broken bones had littered the sand within; she wished Ruval a pleasant day amid the remains of a hundred generations of dragons.

  She scanned the cliffs carefully for signs of treachery: piles of loose stone that could fall at a sorcerer’s thought; a pit dug out and covered by cloth, then camouflaged with plants and sand; rope stretched between rocks that would be nearly invisible by night. There was nothing, and that worried her. Everything she knew and everything she intuited about Ianthe’s eldest son pointed to cunning. But then she realized that it was not only as Ianthe’s son, Roelstra’s grandson, that he would be fighting. His claim was based on his lineage, but his challenge had been to sorcery. And by its arts he would battle Pol until one of them lay dead on the sand among the sunbaked flowers.

  Returning to the gardens, she dipped her hands yet again into the cool water, indulging a last memory. It had been here that she had seen Pol for the first time. Vision in Fire and Water of a tiny, perfect son, so obviously Rohan’s with his golden hair and finely carved features that her heart had sideslipped in her chest. She had seen herself holding him, nursing him, a welt burned into her shoulder caused by her own Fire. The qualms of last night returned full force. Was it only chance that the scar was not on her shoulder but on her cheek? Or had she truly made some error in bringing that vision to pass, a mistake born of impatience and too-powerful emotion that would be paid for, not only in the mark on her face but in danger to Pol?

  During the long days of watching Ianthe from Stronghold, she had seen the three other children several times. If she had been ruthless enough that night, if she had not concentrated so wholly on Pol, would Ruval, Marron, and Segev have died then? Was the difference in her scars the visible token of a fatal flaw in what she had done?

  In such thoughts lay madness. Sioned rose from the fountain and dried her hands on her trousers. What was done was done, and could not be undone. But it terrified her that Pol might suffer for whatever mistake she had made.

  She left the gardens for the main courtyard, where horses were being saddled by orange-clad Cunaxans. It was one of Sioned’s curses as a public person that her firegold hair was instantly recognizable; she had never been able to mingle anonymously in any crowd, no matter how plainly she was dressed. When Miyon’s guards saw her, they stopped working, stopped talking, and practically stopped breathing.

  “Good morning,” she said to their commander. “I see you’re going out on patrol.”

  “Good morning, your grace. We—ah, that is, I—”

  Sioned gave him her blandest smile. “It is a patrol you’re going on, you know.”

  “Yes, your grace,” he replied helplessly.

  She nodded and continued sympathetically, “The suspicion cast on your soldiers by recent events must have been most shocking. To find out that not one but two of the ancient race of sorcerers had infiltrated—somehow.”

  “A—shock, your grace.”

  “It must be equally a relief to know that your ranks are no longer fouled by their presence. I keep wondering how they got in, though. Granted, sorcery is a powerful tool, but someone must have proposed them to you—perhaps even insisted that you accept them on this important journey.”

  The man was almost writhing now, but had wits enough to slide past her implication. She expected nothing else; he would not hold so trusted a position in Miyon’s guard if he was entirely stupid. But neither, she noted with interest, was he willing to take responsibility from his prince for the hiring of the two. He said, “It’s a great relief, your grace, that we are no longer suspect.”

  “Of course. Still, it would be interesting to know how they managed it.” She let him sweat out his reply for a moment, then continued, “Be sure to take time to refresh yourselves today. Like so much in the Desert, the heat can be deceptive.”

  “I thank your grace.” He bowed. She smiled. She was not yet out of hearing range when he gave an explosive sigh of gratitude for his deliverance.

  Miyon would not be so easily dealt with, she knew. If she was lucky, he would take a hint and stay at Stronghold without a direct order from the High Princess. She entered the foyer, hoping no argument would be necessary.

  But it had already started without her, and in a manner Sioned never would have believed. Meiglan stood at the top of the steps—actively, stubbornly, and absolutely defying her father for the first time in her life.

  “What do you mean, ‘no’?” Miyon was demanding in tones of disbelief rather than anger.

  “I’m sorry, Father, but I don’t want to leave Stronghold.”

  “What you want is of less importance than the smallest grain of sand in the Desert! Your things are packed and ready!” He gestured to the servants who tottered slightly under the weight of caskets and satchels. “You’re going to get on your horse and—”

  “No, I am not.”

  Sioned blinked, almost as astonished as Miyon. But she was forced to grudging admiration of Meiglan’s tactics; perhaps the girl wasn’t entirely the fool she seemed. Or perhaps she was no fool at all. The timing and location of her defiance had been nicely planned. She had obviously come along meekly enough—until she had an audience. Sioned had always thought it bad taste and worse policy to conduct a private quarrel in public, though she knew people who argued anywhere they felt like it with what they considered a fine aristocratic disdain for anyone else’s opinion. But Meiglan required witnesses—especially the emissary of another prince. Lord Barig stood on the landing in the upper hall, frankly staring as Miyon raised his voice.

  “How dare you, you little slut!”

  She didn’t even flinch. Sioned’s brows shot up. Perhaps association with women who said and did what they liked without fear of their men had put some backbone into the girl.

  “Her grace the High Princess told me I may stay as long as I want,” Meiglan said. “And I don’t want to leave.”

  “You don’t want—?” he echoed in shock.

  “What’s all the fuss?”

  This, mildly and innocently, from Tallain, who arrived with Sionell down the second flight of stairs. Meiglan’s face lit momentarily at this new source of strength and support, a light quickly hidden by downcast lashes. Sioned leaned against the newel post, folded her arms, grinned, and shamelessly settled in to watch Tallain do her work for her.

  Miyon was grinding his teeth, but managed to be civil. “I have neglected my prince
dom too long this spring. It’s time I left for Castle Pine.”

  “Left? But surely you must understand how much you’re needed here, my lord!” Tallain looked and sounded sincerely troubled. Sioned bit her lip to keep from laughing. Rohan himself couldn’t have done it so well. “Lord Barig is fortunately present to carry the truth to his cousin of Gilad, but you’re the only other impartial prince at Stronghold and your value as a witness is inestimable.”

  “That’s right,” Sionell said, as if she’d just thought of it. “My lord is so very wise.” She cast an adoring glance at Tallain, so overdone that it nearly destroyed Sioned’s determination not to laugh. “You simply must stay, my lord. Your word will be essential at the Rialla—a formal inquiry is certain.”

  “So you see we really must stay, Father,” Meiglan added.

  “Yes, of course you must,” Tallain said. “There will be questions asked that only you can answer, my lord.”

  Miyon swallowed with some difficulty. And Sioned was pleased to note that even Meiglan understood what questions Tallain referred to. She judged it time to intervene. Smoothing her expression, she started up the stairs.

  “Ah, my lord,” she said to Miyon, “I’ve just seen your guard off on patrol. It was very thoughtful of you to add to our safety by sending your own people.”

  He was trapped and he knew it. She had to admire his recovery as he said with adequate aplomb, “I considered that you and the High Prince have enough to do, and perhaps this person may get careless and be caught.”

  “We can only hope so,” Sioned told him. “I want above all things to hear everything he has to say.”

  “It should be quite a story.” Tallain sighed and shook his head.

  Sioned conducted a little experiment. “Tell me, my lord, do you think Princess Chiana was under the influence of sorcery? Nothing else could explain the madness of the attack on Dragon’s Rest.”

  “I think it likely,” Miyon said, and in his eyes was a glimmer of hope. Sioned wondered if he really believed they would let him get away with that excuse. But she perceived that he would try it. Although admitting to beguilement would make him appear ridiculous in the eyes of other princes, it would give him a chance to keep his life. She would enjoy watching him squirm before Rohan condemned him to death.