Lord of the Shadows (45 page)

“And that's the difference between you and me, Dirk,” Kirsh replied heavily. “You're a born politician. You're already thinking about ten years from now. I just want to keep Senet intact until Misha gets home.”

arqel exploded with fury when she learned Kirsh had not only released Dirk Provin, but reinstated him. Eryk told her about it. He was bubbling with the news Prince Kirsh had reconsidered his rash decision of the previous day and had rightfully released Lord Dirk and restored him to his position as Lord of the Suns.

The stupidity of the decision left her gasping. And it worried her. If Kirsh loved her as much as he claimed, he should have killed Dirk with his bare hands. He should have destroyed him without hesitation. Instead, he had caved in like a tunnel built of sand and allowed Dirk to take charge the way he took charge with everything.

She found Kirsh in the morning room, talking with Rees Provin. Storming into the room, she didn't even wait for them to acknowledge her presence before she let loose with her tirade.

“You let him
go
!”

Kirsh looked up at her, wincing at her tone.

“What were you
thinking
? Do you realize what you've
done
?”

“Would you excuse us, Rees?” he said to the duke.

Rees Provin bowed silently and left without a word, deliberately avoiding meeting Marqel's eye. He thoughtfully closed the doors behind him when he left.

“You freed him,” she spat angrily. “You let him just walk away.”

“I didn't have a choice, Marqel.”

“Of course you had a choice. Your choice was not to let Dirk Provin get away with murder.”

“I need him.”

“For what? To remind you what an idiot you are?”

“Antonov's sick,” he tried to explain. “I need Dirk's help …”

“What's wrong with doing it on your own?”

“If these were normal times, there'd be nothing wrong with it,” he said, wounded by her lack of sympathy. “But in case it slipped your notice, yesterday the Goddess very publicly turned her back on the Shadowdancers, Marqel, and made a mockery out of your whole religion. Without the Lord of the Suns very publicly supporting me, I haven't got a hope in hell of controlling anything. Strange as it may seem, threatening to execute him for murder isn't really the way to secure his cooperation.”

“So he gets away with it. Like he gets away with everything else he's done.”

“Unfortunately.”

“Why can't you just kill him and appoint a new Lord of the Suns?”

“Because the appointment would take months. Months I don't have. Dirk is Lord of the Suns and I'm stuck with it.”

Marqel was livid. “And what happens to me? Did you spare
that
a thought while you were forgiving your old chum for everything else?”

“You're still High Priestess,” he assured her.

“High Priestess of
what
?” she snarled. “Leave Dirk Provin in charge of the Church and within a month there won't be anything for me to be High Priestess
of
!”

“And if I execute the Lord of the Suns after the Goddess so loudly declared her support for the Sundancers, it will rip Senet apart. I don't mind fighting a war, Marqel, but I'm damned if I'll start one among my own people.”

“So I'm to be sacrificed to save Senet from a civil war?” she concluded bitterly. “If you really loved me, you'd fight a dozen wars for me, Kirsh.”

He tried to take her in his arms, but she pushed him away impatiently.

“Marqel, please try to understand. I
am
doing this for you. I won't let Dirk denounce you. I won't let him remove you and I won't let him destroy the Shadowdancers. But you saw what happened in Bollow after the eclipse didn't eventuate and those
fires didn't burn. That will happen again, all over Senet, if I don't do something to nip it in the bud.”

Marqel realized anger wasn't getting her anywhere, so she decided to try a different tack. “But he's dangerous, Kirsh,” she said, leaning into his arms. “I'm afraid for you more than I'm afraid for myself.”

“I'll be fine, Marqel,” he promised, pulling her close. “And you'll be safe in Omaxin for the time being. Once this is—”

“Omaxin?” she cut in.

“My father wants to go to Omaxin to speak to the Goddess. You'll have nothing to worry about. Nobody will be able to harm you up there. I'll send plenty of troops with you. You'll be well protected.”

She looked up at him, her eyes suddenly filled with crystal tears. “You're sending me away?”

“It's for your own safety, Marqel.”

She pushed him away impatiently. “And did you want me to sleep with your father while I'm there? Is that all I am to you? Someone you can pass around the family? Thank the Goddess Misha's gone, or I suppose you'd have me servicing the Crippled Prince as well.”

Her accusation cut him to the core—which was precisely what she intended.

“I'm trying to keep you safe, Marqel,” he said, begging for her understanding.

“No, you're not,” she accused. “You're trying to save your own precious neck. My fate runs a poor second to that.”

“Then what do you
want
me to do?” he cried in frustration.

“Kill Dirk Provin.”

He shook his head helplessly. “Don't you think I have as much reason to want him destroyed as you do? But I can't, Marqel. He's got me by the balls.”

“That would account for why you don't seem to have them anymore.”

“Marqel …”

“Don't even bother, Kirsh,” she told him coldly. “If you need Dirk Provin to hold your hand while you try to sort out the
mess he created in the first place, you're not the man I thought you were.”

She turned on her heel, heading for the door. Dirk was right.
Why settle for the boy when you can have the man?
Antonov would never have let himself be manipulated like this.

“I'm divorcing Alenor.”

She stopped and turned to stare at him.

“You're
what
?”

“I'm divorcing Alenor,” he repeated. “When all this is straightened out, we can be together, Marqel. No more hiding. No more sneaking around. Just like you wanted.”

“Does Alenor know?”

“Not yet. But she won't object.”

“What about your father?”

“My father's dead, Marqel. The man who inhabits the shell of his body is not the Lion of Senet. You'll realize that as soon as you see him.”

Marqel stared at him in wonder. “So you're the Lion of Senet now?”

“In practice, if not in reality.”

A world of possibility suddenly opened up to Marqel. Her eyes filled with compassion, she hurried back to Kirsh and threw her arms around him. “Oh, Kirsh! That's awful!”

“Nobody must know he's mad, Marqel.”

“They'll not learn it from me,” she promised. She searched his face for a moment and then let the light of comprehension dawn in her wide, ingenuous eyes. “That's why you want me to go to Omaxin with him, isn't it? To look after him. To keep his terrible secret. Oh, my love, I'm so sorry. You should have explained. I didn't mean those awful things I said just now. Of course I'll go to Omaxin. And I'll stay with your father for as long as you need me to.”

“You have to cover for him, Marqel. If anybody learned the Lion of Senet was no longer capable of ruling… even if they smell a hint of weakness …”

“It's all right, Kirsh,” she said soothingly. “I understand. I won't let anyone near him. As far as the rest of the world is
concerned, he will be simply deep in his devotions to the Goddess.”

He kissed her and then held her close. Marqel bore his embrace patiently, although she was itching to get away from him now. This was an unbelievable opportunity and she wanted time alone to savor its full potential.

“I wish I didn't have to send you away.”

“We'll be together soon,” she promised. “Just be careful while I'm gone. Don't let Dirk get the better of you. And don't trust him.”

“I can handle Dirk,” he assured her.

Don't kid yourself, Kirsh
, she replied silently.
He'll play you like a balalaika. But you're too dense to realize it.

“I know you can, my love. Just promise me you'll be careful.”

“I promise.”

She sighed heavily. “I suppose you want us to leave as soon as possible.”

“Sergey's getting things organized now.”

“Then I should go and pack,” she said, disentangling herself from his arms.

He let her go reluctantly. Marqel stood on her toes and kissed him lightly and then she fled the morning room, afraid if she stayed any longer Kirsh would see the excitement in her eyes.

he Queen of Dhevyn had spent her entire life living in a palace, so the experience of staying at an inn, even a good one, was something she found rather novel. It was Jacinta's idea, of course. Although there was no question Alenor would be welcomed at the palace in Avacas, Jacinta thought it prudent not to risk placing themselves within the power of the Lion of Senet any more than was absolutely necessary.

It would take just one small carrier pigeon from Bollow to change their status from guests to prisoners, and she didn't intend to let that happen to her queen.

The inn they found was located in the better part of Avacas, a little too close to the palace for comfort, but Jacinta reasoned their anonymity demanded it. The better inns were discreet and solicitous of their guests' privacy. Putting the Queen of Dhevyn up in a dockside tavern, even under an assumed name, would be as good as hiring a town crier to broadcast their presence to the whole city.

Tael and his men had shed their uniforms at her insistence, although she wondered why she had bothered suggesting it. The Guardsmen rode like Guardsmen, they walked like Guardsmen, they even ate like Guardsmen. If they had been standing stark naked in a field
full
of naked men, she could have picked them out, just by the way they carried themselves.

“You're looking very pensive,” Alenor remarked.

Jacinta was sitting by the window, looking out over the busy Avacas street, lost in thought. They had been at the inn for six days now and the queen was feeling trapped.

“I was thinking about a field full of naked men, actually.”

“Jacinta!”

She turned to her cousin with smile. “One has to do something to pass the time. It beats wearing a hole in the carpet.”

Alenor self-consciously stopped her pacing. “Tael's been gone a long time.”

“He's hardly been gone any time at all, Allie. Stop fretting.”

“Do you think he'll be able to find us a ship?”

“Avacas is the busiest port in the world. I'm sure he'll manage something.”

“I hate this sneaking around. I was never any good at it.”

“We're not ‘sneaking around,’ Alenor,” Jacinta corrected.

“We're keeping a low profile. There is a subtle but distinct difference.”

“Well, I'm glad you can see it. Do you think Alexin got away safely?”

“I'm sure Avacas would be abuzz with the news if he hadn't.”

“Where do you suppose he went?”

Jacinta sighed. “Alenor, if I knew the answer to that, I would have told you. On one of the several thousand occasions you've asked me the same question in the past few days.”

“I'm sorry. I just can't help but worry about him.”

“Worry if you have to, Allie, but at least think up a new question every now and then.”

“You're mad at me, aren't you?”

“Of course I'm not mad at you,” she exclaimed in surprise. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

“You've been really snappy ever since we left Bollow.”

“That's probably because I've never been thrown out of a whole country before.” Jacinta smiled. “I've been thrown out of a university. And a tavern—don't ever tell my mother that— but not a whole country. I'm not sure if it means I'm moving up in the world, or down in it.”

“Why don't you ever take anything seriously?”

“I do so take things seriously.”

“Not the really important things,” Alenor observed. “The more serious a thing is, the more you joke about it.”

“Have I made any tasteless jokes about Alexin?”

“No,” Alenor conceded. “And you haven't said a word about Dirk, either.”

“What's to say?” Jacinta shrugged. “By now I imagine the Lord of the Suns is swinging in the breeze by a very long rope, feeding the ravens through his eye sockets. Unless Kirsh burned him, in which case they might use him for fertilizer.”

“There!” Alenor exclaimed. “That's exactly what I mean. You're joking about it.”

Jacinta looked back over the street, not willing to meet the young queen's alarmingly perceptive gaze. “It doesn't mean anything, Allie.”

“It means you're worried about him. Seriously worried.”

“Aren't you?”

“Of course I am, but then he's my cousin and my friend. I didn't realize he meant so much to you.”

“Don't be absurd!” she snapped. “I spoke to Dirk Provin only a handful of times the whole time I was in Bollow.”

“You like him, though, don't you?”

“It's really rather a moot point what I thought about him,” she shrugged. “He's probably dead by now, swinging in the aforementioned breeze.”

“There! You're doing it again!”

“Oh, do stop this nonsense, Alenor,” she grumbled. “Making snide and rather tasteless remarks about Dirk Provin's execution does not imply that I feel anything for him.”

“I never said you felt anything for him. Is there something you're not telling me?”

Jacinta was rescued from this decidedly bizarre and uncomfortable conversation by Tael's return from the docks. She called permission to enter before he'd even finished knocking on the door.

“Did you find a ship that will take us back to Kalarada?” she asked as soon as the captain stepped into the room.

“Yes and no, my lady,” he replied. “I can get you and the queen a berth and perhaps a third of the men, but we'll have to find another ship to get the rest of the guard and the horses back to Dhevyn.”

“When does this ship sail?”

“Just after first sunrise,” Tael told her. “It's a Dhevynian trader. Not the grandest ship afloat, but I thought speed was more important than comfort.”

“That's all right,” Jacinta assured him. “We don't mind roughing it a bit, do we, your majesty?”

She shook her head, but she wasn't really listening to the question. “Did you hear any other news, Captain?”

“If you mean about Captain Seranov, your majesty, then no, there's not a whisper about him. There's news aplenty about what happened in Bollow, though.”

“I can imagine,” Jacinta agreed. “Is it anything new, or just the same rumors we've been hearing for days?”

“Mostly the same. The word on the streets is that nothing
much will happen until Prince Kirshov and the Lord of the Suns return to Avacas tomorrow.”

“Kirsh didn't waste any time finding a replacement for Dirk, did he?” Alenor said bitterly.

Jacinta stared at her in wonder. “But he can't.”

“Can't what?”

“He can't replace the Lord of the Suns. That's Church business and not even the Lion of Senet can interfere in it. If Dirk was executed, that means he didn't die by natural causes and
that
means he can only be replaced by an election.”

“The fastest election in the history of the Church by the sound of it,” Tael remarked.

“No, you don't understand,” she said. “We're not talking about a show of hands by anybody who happens to be in the room, Captain. We're talking every Sundancer and Shadowdancer in Senet. And Dhevyn. And Damita. Even as far away as Galina, if there are any of them there. It's something that takes months to arrange.”

“What are you saying, Jacinta?” Alenor asked with a puzzled frown. “That Kirsh has defied Church law?”

“That or he's changed his mind about executing the current Lord of the Suns.”

Hope suddenly flared in Alenor's eyes. “Then Dirk is alive?”

“I don't know,” Jacinta shrugged. “I guess we won't know until they get here tomorrow.”

“Oh, Jacinta! That's wonderful news! But what made Kirsh change his mind?”

“We don't know that he has, Allie,” she warned. Jacinta wasn't quite as ready to believe the unbelievable. It was far too dangerous to allow that sort of hope to grow, only to have it dashed again when they learned the truth. “All we have is a rumor we can't substantiate until tomorrow.”

“And your ship sails tonight, your majesty,” Tael reminded her.

“But we can't leave now,” Alenor cried. “Not if Dirk is still alive.”

“Whether he's alive or dead, you must get back to
Kalarada, Alenor,” Jacinta advised. “Senet is a tinderbox waiting to explode and we are sitting far too close to the kindling. There is no question of you staying in Avacas.”

“But…”

“The Lady Jacinta speaks the truth, your majesty,” Tael added.

“Then
you
must stay, Jacinta,” the queen decreed.

“Kirsh ordered me out of Senet, Alenor. He'll not be too pleased to discover I didn't leave.”

“You're not afraid of Kirsh,” she scoffed. “Anyway, two-thirds of the guard will still be here until they can find another ship. You can always claim you sent me on ahead because you couldn't find a berth. And if Dirk is alive, I'm certain he won't let you come to any harm.”

Jacinta shook her head doubtfully. “I don't know, Allie …”

“I'm not asking your advice, my lady,” Alenor told her regally. “I am ordering you, as your queen, to stay here in Avacas and find out if the rumors are true. If they're not, then you can come straight home to Kalarada on the next available ship.”

“And if your cousin lives?”

“Then ask Dirk what he needs of us.”

“Your majesty …” Tael ventured uncertainly.

“Yes, Captain?”

“There may be another explanation. One a little less palatable, but a tad more believable than the notion Prince Kirshov suddenly changed his mind about the High Priestess Belagren being murdered and simply let the Lord of the Suns go.”

“What do you mean?”

“Have you considered the possibility that if Dirk Provin lives, it's because he may have bought his freedom?”

“With what?” Alenor demanded.

“With anything he could use as currency, your majesty,” Tael suggested grimly. “Up to and including Dhevyn.”