The Destroyer Goddess (47 page)

Elelar said, "It's not me you want at all, is it? It's this child." 

"I will take very good care of you until he's born," Cheylan assured her.

Her jaw dropped and she stared hard at him. "Fires of Dar," she murmured. "An
unborn
child. One not even conceived yet. That's it, isn't it? That's why Mirabar didn't know whom she envisioned. And you... You think your child—yours and mine, for some reason—is the one she has foreseen."

"You've been blessed," he told her.

"You have an exaggerated notion of your virility."

"I was referring," he said, "to the importance of the child you've been chosen to bear."

"And, as his father, you expect to be the one who rules the ruler?" Elelar shook her head. "I never realized what a fool you are, Cheylan."

"Under the circumstances," he warned her, "you should be more polite."

"Why? If you want this child to be born, you'll have to treat me well while I'm carrying it, no matter how rude I am. And even if I'm polite, you'll still kill me when you no longer need me." She made a disgusted sound. "This is pathetic, Cheylan. You lack the qualities to be a leader, and instead of accepting that, you've deluded yourself into believing you'll rule Sileria through a bastard child whose mother you're already planning to murder."

"Phrase it how you choose, this is my destiny,
torena
."

"Hasn't it occurred to you that our child might dislike you as much as everyone else does?"

"I may have to keep you healthy, but I don't have to make you
comfortable
for the next nine months," Cheylan warned.

"You're as crazy as Baran, aren't you? But at least he doesn't have grand delusions about a destiny he can't possibly live up to. Do you
really
think that this child you've planted in me is going to be—"

"I
know
it is. After all, Mirabar is a gifted prophetess." Seeing that this made Elelar pause and look uncertain, he added, "And whereas she despises you, she trusts me. Well...
trusted
me," he amended. "I have a feeling that may have changed by now."

"You mean you didn't give her some elaborate story to—"

"There wasn't time," Cheylan admitted. "Things happened very quickly. You may find it heartwarming to know that as soon as she realized you were destined to bear the new ruler, she became desperate to protect you."

"That had to be an interesting moment," Elelar murmured dryly. "And so she sent you to me?" 

"I convinced her to let me go to you."

She sighed. "Well, a woman who would marry Baran and maintain such a peculiarly devoted relationship with Najdan... I should have realized her judgment in men was unreliable."

"You're in no position to criticize anyone's judgment,
torena
. You were practically inviting Kiloran to kill you by then. It was a relief to arrive at your estate and discover he had not yet realized you were there." 

"He'll kill us both now," she predicted.

Cheylan shook his head. "I distracted him. By now, he's probably already killed the woman he believes is bearing the child he wants to eliminate."

She looked puzzled, and he realized that her friends hadn't trusted her enough to tell her about Jalilar, either. 

Elelar ignored his comment, though, in favor of pursuing her point. "Sooner or later, Kiloran will realize you betrayed him, and then he'll—"

"Undoubtedly. But he won't find us."

"You're very sure of that, are you?"

"And he'll have tremendous problems of his own to face."

"Tansen?" she guessed.

"Among other things." If Kiloran had indeed taken the bait and had Jalilar murdered... in
Sanctuary
, too... "Really," Cheylan murmured, "it's amazing, the things some people think they can get away with."

"What do you
mean
, 'the wrong child'?" Kiloran demanded.

Meriten, who had come to see him at Kandahar after yet another failure to take control of the Shaljir River, spread his hands and looked apologetic. "That's what people are saying,
siran
."

"What people?" Kiloran snapped.

"The rumors apparently come from Baran—"

"Who is lying, of course."

"He is given credence because he's Mirabar's husband," said Meriten.

"It doesn't matter what lies Mirabar wants to tell now. Jalilar was the mother of the unborn ruler whom that demon-girl foresaw, and now Jalilar is dead. It's finished," Kiloran insisted coldly.

He already knew that, unfortunately, there'd been a witness to the massacre at the Sanctuary. Mirabar and Tansen would certainly have suspected, regardless, that Kiloran was behind the killings; but they never could have proved it, and he could have denied it. However, Searlon—
damn him!
—had failed to kill everyone, not realizing that there was a Sister hiding in the woods; and she had recognized him. Searlon so rarely made mistakes, and this one was proving to be costly. Word was already spreading across Sileria that Kiloran had ordered Jalilar's murder in Sanctuary.

However, what was done was done. As with Josarian's murder, Kiloran fully intended to turn these events to his advantage. Fear and respect would instill obedience in the people of Sileria, who would understand—even if Tansen and Mirabar had briefly made them doubt it—that Kiloran was destined to rule the nation. He had destroyed the Firebringer, he had shattered Mirabar's prophecy about the new Yahrdan, and he would emerge victorious. He acknowledged no other possibility.

"
Siran
..." Meriten hesitated. "I don't wish to intrude, but was Cheylan the Guardian the source of your information about Jalilar?"

He went still. "Why do you ask?"

"The Emeldari want vengeance for the murder of Jalilar and her husband, Emelen. They're already at war with you, of course, but now they have declared a bloodvow against Cheylan," said Meriten. "They believe Baran, who says that Cheylan betrayed Jalilar to you."

Kiloran narrowed his eyes. "Go on."

"They say that killing Josarian wasn't enough for you. You wanted his nearest kin's blood, too. Even though she was a harmless woman hiding from you in Sanctuary." Meriten paused and then repeated, "In Sanctuary."

Kiloran heard the distaste in the other waterlord's voice and pointed out, "She was pregnant with a child who threatened all of us, Meriten."

"That's not what people say."

"What they say doesn't ma—"

Meriten interrupted, "They say Cheylan was angry about losing Mirabar to Baran and so betrayed her. He told you where to find Josarian's sister, and then he fled."

"Fled?" Kiloran repeated. "Are you saying Cheylan has disappeared?"

"Yes. And rumor has it that Mirabar is hunting him now."      "She's left the safety of Belitar?" That surprised him. 

"So they say. And, no, no one has any idea where she is."

"What a pity." And his own men, he reflected with frustration, were currently stretched too thin to try to track her for him. 

"Now that Baran has told the Emeldari about Cheylan, though," Meriten continued, "it's probably just a question of who finds him first, them or Mirabar. Either way, Cheylan is finished."

"He was careless," Kiloran said dismissively.

"I don't understand,
siran
. Cheylan's a Guardian. Why did he help you?"

Kiloran shrugged. "As people say. He was angry about losing Mirabar to—"

"Even so,
siran
, why would Cheylan help you eliminate the prophesied ruler of Sileria and destroy his own life in doing so? It doesn't make sense. He is a Guardian, an educated man, and rumored to be quite clever. Wouldn't he have tried align himself with Jalilar and her child rather than expose himself and help the Society prevail?"

Kiloran shrugged. "Cheylan's a very twisted..." There was a sudden chill in his blood. "...complicated... cunning..."
Why, indeed?
"That's a good question," Kiloran said slowly. "What did he have to gain by helping
me
?"

I thought it was just my favor. What if it was something else? Was I so arrogant in my dealings with him that I failed to perceive the real reasons for his actions?

The cold spreading through him almost made him shiver as he ordered, "Tell me what else are people saying."

"It's... disrespectful,
siran
." 

"Yes, I've heard some of it already," Kiloran replied. 

He had realized from the start that violating Sanctuary was extremely risky. Knowing what he knew about Jalilar, though, it had seemed worth the gamble, worth whatever it might cost him in the long-run.

He felt his stomach roil, though, as he now considered that all he really knew about Jalilar was what Cheylan had chosen to tell him.

If that child wasn't the one, what did Cheylan have to gain by telling me it was?

"I'm sorry to report,
siran
," Meriten said, "that I have been losing allies since the news of Jalilar's death reached the region around Zilar. Many people are... appalled by the violation of Sanctuary." Meriten's eyes shifted nervously. "And now people tell another story..."

Losing allies...

"Go on," Kiloran prodded.

"Baran says that the cause of the bitter hatred he has always borne for you..."

Kiloran drew in a sharp breath. He knew, even before Meriten spoke again, that after all these years, Baran had sacrificed his privacy and admitted his terrible shame.

"Baran says that you abducted and murdered his wife," Meriten said. "That you are the kind of man who treats the women of his enemies and his rivals that way. That you have no honor. He says that no woman is safe while you live. He has offered formal apology to your enemies for not having told them earlier what he knew, for not having warned them that you might well kill their women." 

"And their unborn children?" Kiloran muttered.

Meriten nodded. "Many people are listening to this talk,
siran
. And repeating it to others."

Kiloran closed his eyes and felt the watery domain of Kandahar quiver all around him as he absorbed this. 

Baran saw my mistake and recognized his opportunity.
 

People would believe Baran because they would understand what such a terrible admission—that he'd been unable to protect his own wife—cost such a great waterlord. They would understand why he had kept silent all these years; and they would cherish his revelation now.

Had Cheylan known about Alcinar?

Perhaps, perhaps not. It didn't matter. Cheylan had planted the seed, and Baran was now reaping the harvest, shrewd enough to use the incident to weaken Kiloran's influence. And if that madman was actually telling the truth for once, if Jalilar's child wasn't the one, if Cheylan had lied, if Kiloran had ordered Searlon to kill a harmless
shallah
woman in Sanctuary... 

"You say other..." Kiloran cleared his throat. "Other people are echoing Baran's sentiments about me?"

"Yes,
siran
," Meriten said uncomfortably.

He would have to send new instructions to Cavasar to keep the city under control. The Cavasari had mostly remained loyal to him throughout the war. But this, Kiloran realized, sick at heart as he contemplated the trap into which he had stumbled... Yes, this could change things for him, even there.

If only he could prove to the
shallaheen
that, in killing Jalilar, he had defeated an enemy as great as Josarian had been... But how could he prove it if Mirabar wouldn't acknowledge it, if she insisted on claiming that Jalilar's unborn child wasn't the one? He would have to think about this and find a solution.

If this turn of events was what Cheylan wanted,
why
had he wanted it? Not for Mirabar's sake, certainly; not if she and the Emeldari all wanted Cheylan dead now. Kiloran briefly considered that this might be another trick, like the time Najdan had pretended to quarrel with Baran. Then he dismissed the notion. The Emeldari were a large and violent clan with many allies who might well fulfill a bloodvow on their behalf. Although Cheylan could protect himself well, he was nonetheless in real danger now that the Emeldari had sworn a bloodvow against him.

"Do you think this is what Cheylan intended all along,
siran
?" Meriten asked.

Kiloran felt nauseated with rage. "If your information is accurate, then he betrayed both sides. Me and Mirabar. The Guardians and the Society."

"Yes, but why?"

"I underestimated him," Kiloran realized. "Or, at least, his ambition."

"How can being marked for death by all of us fulfill his ambitions?"

"It doesn't. He simply thought..." Kiloran recalled his own decision to violate Sanctuary. "He thought it was worth the risk." He nodded slowly, thinking aloud. "Gulstan and Kariman are tearing each other apart. Their fortunes are destroyed, their lands lost, their homes under constant siege, their men dead or exhausted and doomed to die soon. I can't prove it, but I believe Tansen caused their bloodfeud. He did it to free those territories for his own people. To weaken—even destroy—Gulstan and Kariman with as little cost to himself as possible."