Firestorm (39 page)

***

With the boisterous sounds of a celebration echoing throughout the palace even as an army threatened outside the city gates, Raina and Teague made their stealthy way to the library. Unheeded by the servants hurrying to and fro, they slipped inside, found the great tapestry and the secret door hidden behind it, and opened it. The other half of the army swarmed in.

Teague leading the assault with Raina at his side, the desert warriors streamed through the palace, some taking the drunken and unsuspecting revelers totally by surprise, others heading through the city to open the gates to the rest of the army. In the course of but a few hours, Ksathra was taken.

Sinon was one of the first to surrender. Vorax was finally found hiding in one of the large, wooden vats of fermenting uva wine, soaked to the skin and purple-red from his neck down. They brought them both down to the torture caverns for safekeeping, as much to protect them from the people as to hold them prisoner.

Once the palace was secured and some semblance of order restored, Teague called for a gathering of the inhabitants of Ksathra. Raina joined him on the royal dais before the milling, excited mass of humanity that packed the Great Hall. Though he'd been uncomfortable assuming the chair of power, Raina had insisted. The rebellion was too new, she'd told him, to weaken it by the lack of a strong figurehead. Whether he wished the role or not, he must accept it at least temporarily.

Before Teague could rise and speak to the people, the royal chamberlain, an ancient man who'd served the royal house of Ksathra and gone into hiding during Vorax's reign, hobbled forward. Behind him came the leaders of the twelve desert tribes. As temporary leader of the Tuarets, Aban led the others, bearing a crown on a padded tray of crimson edged with argentum and aureum metal.

Teague eyed Aban and the object on his tray. His throat went tight. The crown of dominion, his father's crown. "This is premature, Aban," he rasped, gesturing to the contents of the tray. "The people have yet to speak, or choose their new ruler."

"And do you think they will not choose you, sire?" the royal chamberlain asked stepping forward to take the crown from Aban and move up the dais to stand before Teague.

Teague shot Raina an imploring glance, then riveted a steely gaze back on the old man. "More to the point, I haven't decided if I—"

The chamberlain turned and lifted the crown high above his head. "Is Tarik Shatrevar worthy to rule Farsala?" he cried, his voice surprisingly strong for so old a man. "What is the will of the people in this?"

"Let him rule," a voice shouted from the depths of the crowd. "He is worthy. The prophecy has been fulfilled the taint exorcised the evil overthrown. He is worthy, I say!"

"Yes," another roared. "Crown him. Crown him now!"

As one, the people surged forward crying out their accord.

Raina leaned close and whispered in his ear. "You are worthy, my love. And Farsala needs you."

His glance locked with her. "I'm afraid, Raina."

"It's a terrible responsibility. But you can't run from it. Your destiny always called you back to Farsala."

He sighed. "Yes, I know that well." His mouth tightened and, with a resolute lift of his chin, he turned back to the chamberlain. "I bow to the will of my people. But the coronation must wait a time. First, I have a few other issues to settle. Set the date for the ceremonies for a week from now."

The old man smiled. "It will be as you ask, sire." He turned back to the crowd. "The prince will accept the crown. We'll commence the official ceremonies in a week's time."

The people roared in jubilation and, for a time, bedlam reigned in the Great Hall. Then Teague stood and motioned to the guards standing off to the right, beside a door. At his command, the men opened the door and signaled within. Four Tuarets led the unbound Vorax and Sinon into the hall. At sight of the pair, the crowd went still, save for soft, angry mutterings that arose from various parts of the big room.

Teague glanced at Raina. "What's to be Vorax's fate? After what he did to you, I'd say it's your prerogative to choose."

She shot him an arch look. "And do you discount, then, what he did to you? He had your father and mother murdered, your sister raped and driven to suicide. Not to mention the physical and mental torment he put you through. I'd say you've suffered far, far more than I."

"It's in the past, Raina. I don't want to return to it, even if only to garner the anger necessary to kill him."

"Still, he cannot be allowed to go free."

Teague arched a dark blond brow. "Then it's lifelong imprisonment, is it?"

She considered that for a moment, then slowly nodded. "That seems fair enough, for all the cycles of pain and suffering he put us and everyone else through. He needn't know the full extent of our mercy immediately, though."

"You wish to twist the knife of his submission a bit, do you?" He smiled.

"Exactly. Vorax deserves to squirm for a time." Raina paused. "And what of Sinon?"

He considered that for a moment. "His fate can be determined later. Vorax is who matters right now."

Teague extended his hand and she took it. Together, they turned to face the man who had once been their greatest nemesis.

Vorax drew up before them, fat, wet, and ludicrously colored. His gaze shifted anxiously from one to the other. "You will kill me, then, will you?" he finally forced the words out.

Teague stared down at him, piercing him with a grim look. "You deserve that, and more, for all the cycles of your brutal reign."

The garishly stained man wobbled, then sank to his knees. "I-I beg you. Don't kill me. I-I don't want to die."

"Please. Have some dignity, Father." Sinon stepped closer, a sneer on his face, toying with one of the rings on his hand. "Be a man for once and face at long last the consequences of what you have wrought."

Teague's glance never wavered from the cowering man kneeling before him. "It's indeed time that Vorax faced the consequences of what he has wrought. Look up. Face me, Malam Vorax."

Ever so slowly, Vorax lifted his gaze.

"Why should I show you mercy?" Teague demanded with cold ruthlessness. "Did you show me mercy, either as a lad, or recently, when you held me once more? Did you show my father or mother or sister mercy?"

"Your father, your line, was corrupt." Vorax strained against the hold on his arms and the two men who held him. He was like a cornered animal now, ready to lash out at any and everyone. "I did Farsala a service in destroying him. I served Farsala well in excising a tainted, unwholesome heritage."

"Yet ultimately, you still failed." Raina leaned forward in her chair. "Teague prevailed, just as the prophecy promised. And the taint exorcised, the evil overthrown, was perhaps always as much that of you and your spawn as it ever was the House of Shatrevar's."

"Then let that spawn of his exorcise the evil once and for all!" Before anyone could react, Sinon turned and, grabbing his father's soggy tunic, pulled him around and pressed his fisted hand to his neck. A thorn, protruding from an open-topped ring, sank into the flesh at the base of Vorax's throat.

Vorax screamed in agony and fell to his knees. Then the Tuarets were upon them, pulling Sinon away. The ring, containing the deadly Arborian nexus thorn, was wrenched from his hand.

"Die, you foul-hearted animal!" His face purple with rage, his eyes gleaming with a crazed, triumphant light, Sinon struggled against the men who held him. "You were a failure at everything. At ruling the people, as a husband, and most of all, as a father. You've always been nothing but an old fool ... a pitiful disappointment."

"Take him . . . take him away," Teague growled above the rising tumult of the crowd. He motioned for the guards to lead Sinon out of the hall.

Teague sat there for a time, his hands clenching the arms of his chair, his mind awhirl. Sinon had killed his father. Never, even in the darkest of times, had he ever felt that way about his own father.

A fool . . . so disappointed in you.

The words, so long a bitter torment to him, no longer held the same bite. Where Sinon had shriveled beneath the onslaught of an indifferent and callous father, Teague had striven to fight even harder. And ultimately been found worthy, where in many ways his father had been unworthy.

They dragged Sinon away, shrieking in rage. Then Vorax, already convulsing in the final throes of the thorn's fatal nerve toxin, was carried out. The people, stunned at what had just transpired filed silently out of the room. When the Great Hall was empty once more, Teague rose and offered Raina his hand.

She looked up at him, a questioning light in her eyes.

"Come," he said. "The memories hang heavy about this room. Let us leave it."

Raina stood. "As you wish. Even a ruler needs an occasional reprieve from the hardships of his reign, though he must eventually still sacrifice his will for the good of the many."

Teague smiled and shook his head his long fingers closing gently, tenderly around hers. "Do you realize how much like Bahir you sound right now?"

"He's dead, you know," she said, suddenly wistful. "He gave his body to Rand at the end."

Any being who dies creates the cause for a new being . . .

At the memory of those sacred words, Teague's smile faded to a bittersweet, slight upturning of his lips. "And Rand took the crystal back to Bellator?"

"Yes. He thought I should stay behind and be with you."

"I'm so very glad that you did, sweet one." He tugged on her hand. "Come, let's walk out onto the balcony."

She followed him without protest, thankful, after all that had transpired in the past few days, just to be alive and to be with him. Together, they walked out onto a broad stone porch enclosed by a short, pillared railing. Before them spread the city of Ksathra, and beyond, the foothills and lush lands that gently eased, far in the distance, into the barren, undulating expanse of the Ar Rimal.

Behind them the sun set in the mountains, bathing the white buildings and boulevards in a rose-pink light. The streets were quiet now. Oil lamps winked in the windows. Sounds of meals being prepared and families settling down for the evening rose on the twilight-tinged air.

Teague guided Raina over to the balcony railing, then pulled her close. They stood for a long while, content just to watch the peaceful scene.

"It'll be better now," he finally said. "For the people, for Farsala, for both of us. A fresh chance at a new life and a new reign. A reign that promises to be far better than the one we both left cycles ago."

"You'll be a magnificent ruler." Raina snuggled yet closer. "You chose well—and triumphed."

He bent to kiss the top of her head. "Yes, I did," Teague whispered into the soft tumble of her hair. "Yet my greatest victory of all was the prize of your heart, your love."

She leaned back to gaze up at him, wonderment and a wary hope shining in her eyes. "Truly, Teague?"

"Truly." He stared down at her, a myriad of emotions flashing through his eyes. "I love you, Raina. Will you be my life mate? Be my queen and help me rule? I fear I can't do it without you."

Raina chuckled softly.

Teague arched a brow, suddenly suspicious. "Pray, what is so amusing? I just offered you my heart and love, and all you can do is laugh?"

"I was just thinking about some wise words that Najirah once said, and that you're the strangest monk I've ever known."

He took her face in his hands, cupping her cheeks in the hollow of his calloused palms. "But a monk no more, sweet one. That life once served me well, but not now, or ever again."

"Yes, it did indeed serve you well and helped to make you the man you are. I see that now. I see a lot of things more clearly now."

She turned her face into his hand and kissed him over the pulse throbbing at his wrist, her heart so full of joy she thought it might burst at any moment. "And I suppose I shall accept your offer of a life-mating," Raina said, smiling up at him, an impish twinkle in her eyes. "What choice does either of us have? The same destiny that first, called us together would never permit anything less."

"I suppose you're right," Teague thoughtfully replied. "Yet, despite all that happened finally to bring us together, I don't think I would wish it any other way."

"Nor would I, my love." Raina's eyes brimmed with happy tears. "Nor would I."