The Destroyer Goddess (46 page)

Even after they accepted Tansen's victory and reaffirmed their friendship with him, however, the Moynari still clung to their bloodlust with hot passion. They had lost their clan leader with Kiman's death, after all. Tansen's discussions with them were long and frustrating, and only came to a successful conclusion when he promised the clan a satisfactory peace offering from the Lironi... and a bloodfeud with Josarian's own clan, the Emeldari, if they wouldn't honor Tansen's status as the Firebringer's brother and attend the truce meeting to which he invited them.

Yes, it was hard work, but the Moynari and the Marendari, along with several other clans engaging in this destructive feud, could be convinced to make peace and return to devoting all their energies to defeating the Society. But only, Tansen knew with weary certainty, if the Lironi agreed on the price which the rest of the clans had set.

Thanks to the internal feuding of Verlon's enemies, the old waterlord had already regained some territory which he had previously lost. And that was just the beginning, Tansen knew, if he couldn't quickly reverse the situation here. 

But the waterlords had taught him to be ruthless. So Tansen invited Jagodan shah Lironi to meet him in Gamalan.

Najdan stood as far away from Mirabar's enchanted fire as possible while still remaining close enough to guard her. The logistics were tricky, but he was accustomed to it after all this time.

When Mirabar finally slumped in weariness and turned away from the woodless flames she had blown into life, he asked, "Anything?"

She shook her head. Ever since they'd left Elelar's estate, she had Called shades several times a day in hopes of learning where to find Cheylan and the
torena
.

"Nothing." The
sirana
's voice was dark with fatigue and frustration.

"And the Beckoner?" he prodded.

Mirabar shook her head. "He does not answer."

Feeling rather irritable, Najdan clapped a hand over the
shir
tucked into his
jashar
. He was used to the way it quivered in Mirabar's presence and shook so wildly near her fire magic, but the shivering was getting on his nerves today. He supposed he was a little tired.

"We can't protect Elelar if we can't even find her," Najdan said.

"I know," she snapped.

"We'll never—"

"I
know
."

He fell into a moody silence that matched hers.

"I wish Faradar would return," Mirabar grumbled after a while. "I'm hungry."

They had sent Elelar's pretty maid into a nearby village for supplies. Mirabar's disguise wouldn't protect her identity upon close scrutiny, so she and Najdan remained camped far from the village awaiting Faradar's return.

"I'm hungry, too," he admitted. He was also relieved that Mirabar had apparently passed the phase of her pregnancy which made her vomit every day. Not that her temperament seemed to be improving all that much. However, he acknowledged, these were unusually trying circumstances.

Aware that she was looking a little pale, Najdan picked up the waterskin and suggested she have something to drink.

She shook her head, gazing into her fire with a distracted stare. A moment later, a peculiar expression crossed her face. She made a soft sound and pressed a hand over her womb, looking a little dizzy.

Najdan suddenly felt the sides of the waterskin sag as water floated abundantly out of its mouth. Startled, he dropped it. The water kept flowing—through the air, across the clearing, and straight toward Mirabar.

Water magic
.

Mirabar gasped when she saw it and leaped to her feet.

"
Sirana!
" Najdan seized his
shir
and lunged toward her. 

The water stopped flowing when it reached her face, then just hovered in the air right in front of her. Najdan sliced at it with his
shir
—which was pretty foolish. He circled Mirabar, his back to her as he looked for the imminent attack.

"Najdan," she said softly.

He glanced over his shoulder. 

Mirabar hesitantly touched the hovering stream of airborne water. A moment later, she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue. A few quivering drops separated themselves from the stream and danced onto her tongue.

Mirabar closed her mouth and swallowed.

Their gazes met.

"My daughter," Mirabar said after a moment, her voice a little shaky, "thinks I should drink something."

Najdan grunted, too stunned to say anything. His heart was still pounding as he crossed the clearing and picked up the fallen waterskin. He dropped it again when he heard a footstep behind him. With his
shir
ready for the kill, he leaped at the intruder—

"Don't
do
that!" Faradar shrieked.

Najdan sighed and turned away without apologizing. "I think I'm getting too old for my work."

Mirabar said to Faradar, "He's a little tense just now."

"So I see." Faradar lowered herself shakily onto a fallen log. "I feel ill."

"Did you bring food?" Mirabar asked.

"Yes," Faradar replied. "Also news."

"What?"

"Good news." Faradar took a calming breath, then announced, "Tansen is here in the east."

"What?"

"He has summoned the leaders of some feuding clans to a truce meeting," Faradar said. "In Gamalan."

Mirabar looked at Najdan. "Maybe we should find Tansen—"

"Before we find Cheylan." Najdan nodded, feeling a little better.

Cheylan studied Elelar in the dim light of the cavern. She looked different already. It was as if she glowed from within. "Prophecy is indeed an amazing thing," he murmured, pleased. Nothing had ever confirmed his destiny as thoroughly as the woman standing before him now did. 

I will have it all
.

Mirabar would take it from him if she could. He had seen that in her reaction to the Calling at Belitar. Once Elelar was pregnant, Mirabar would oppose the sire.

You will have to be stronger than he
, Daurion had said to her. 

Well, Daurion, reaching across the centuries through that rusted sword which Baran had given to Mirabar, might want Mirabar to oppose Cheylan; but he knew that Dar, at least, cherished him. Dar and the mysterious Beckoner had shown Cheylan, through Mirabar's visions, that he was chosen for something special. It all became clear to him after that Calling. His secret lair, seen but never understood in Mirabar's visions, sheltered all his ambitions now. He had known, upon going after Elelar, that he was meant to create his future here with her; and he had been right. He'd sensed it the moment it happened, a mystical act of procreation which left him burning with Dar's searing favor.

Cheylan would deal with Mirabar in time. When it was too late for her to come between him and his child. Between him and undisputed rule of Sileria through his son. 

Now he gazed at the woman who bore his future in her womb.

Her dark, long-lashed eyes studied him suspiciously. She kept her distance, as if afraid he would attempt a repetition of their previous encounter here. Memorable though the experience had been, Cheylan had no interest in repeating it.

"How can I make you more comfortable,
torena?
" he asked politely.

"Let me go," Elelar snapped.

Amused, he came closer. "I'm afraid that's not among your choices."

"If you ever touch me again," she warned him, backing away, "I'll kill you."

"I thought you enjoyed it," he said silkily.

"Men always think that."

"I'm wounded." Cheylan smiled. "And you are being less than entirely truthful."

"Then we have that in common."

"In any event,
torena
, I confess that your pleasure, while well worth the effort I invested, was not my primary goal." 

She went very still. "You know, don't you?"

"Of course."

"That's why you brought me here. Why you told all those lies, confused me... trapped me here." Elelar looked around. "Wherever this is."

"I assure you, you'll never find your way out. Not without me."

"In other words," she said coldly, "don't try to escape, and don't try to hurt you."

He casually ignited an explosion of fire practically under her feet. Elelar screamed and flung herself away from it. He winced as she landed hard on a jagged volcanic boulder.

"My mistake," he acknowledged. "I had no idea you'd be so careless in your current condition."

"You've made your point," she said. "I can't hurt you."

"Only my tender feelings," he assured her dryly, knowing full well that that was precisely the sort of battle
Torena
Elelar would try to wage, if she intended to fight.

"What I don't understand is: why?" When he didn't reply, she placed a hand over her smooth, silk-covered stomach and looked down at it. "Or
how
. I thought I was barren."

"Dar did not intend your womb for the offspring of the drunken Valdan you married," he informed her. "Or the many other men who've shared your bed."

She had evidently expected insults from him, since she didn't even look embarrassed, let alone angry. "You're claiming Dar willed this?"

"How else do you explain it?"

Elelar snorted delicately. "A fertile man kidnapped and raped me, and I ran out of luck. People don't talk about it publicly, but this sort of thing is hardly unknown, Cheylan. Under normal circumstances, I'd go home now and pretend it's my husband's child."

"I didn't rape you." Annoyed, he added, "Has
anyone
ever needed to rape you?"

"I now fully understand why no one likes you." Her voice dripped with distaste.

"Our child," he replied, "will love me."

"Not if I have anything to say about it."

"You won't."

The comment startled her, and for a moment, he glimpsed her fear. "Which brings me back to my earlier question. Why?"

"My reasons don't matter," he said, though he assumed she'd keep guessing until she figured it out. He did not underestimate her intelligence, no matter how much she had underestimated
him
. "What matters is that you should be comfortable and—"

"Then let me go."

"No."

"You surely don't intend to keep me
here
for nine months, do you?" she said.

"I haven't decided yet. But it's convenient for now."

"It's
uncomfortable
."

"My apologies."

"Why
my
child, Cheylan? Why am
I
the woman you wanted to do this to?" Elelar persisted. "Surely if there were one woman in all of Sileria whom you..." The realization flashed across her face a moment later. "Ah, but she loves one man and married another. There's no place in her bed for you, is there? Not a woman like Mirabar, who'll be faithful to Baran with her body and to Tansen with her heart for the rest of her life." She shook her head. "So I suppose it doesn't matter how powerful she is or how powerful a child of hers is likely to be. Not if you can't have her."

"Actually, Baran's dying."

That surprised her. "How do you know?"

"I see no one trusted you enough to tell you."

Elelar smiled unpleasantly. "So... even widowed, Mirabar still wouldn't have you, would she?"

"And Tansen's heart," he countered, "would always be Mirabar's, wouldn't it, even if you finally let him into your bed." Cheylan paused and asked, "Or have you already? I'm surely not the only person who's wondered. You've never been discreet, of course, which is why I assumed—"

"Yes, given my notoriously loose morals, why did you go to such elaborate lengths to seduce me?" Her eyes narrowed as she speculated, "Because this has to remain secret?"

"Well, that would certainly be more convenient," he admitted. "For the time being. Eventually, of course, it may make things much easier if you are known to have been the child's mother. Despite what you did to Josarian, you're very popular with the people."

"'Known to have been...'" she repeated. 

He didn't reply.