The White Dragon (101 page)

Wanting to get rid of Faradar, Elelar said to her, "Go have some food brought up to Z—"

"No," Tansen interrupted. "I asked. He won't eat. Not tonight."

Faradar, however, understood Elelar's hint and took her leave, offering to have some cold food set out for Elelar and Tansen downstairs.

"No," he said. "I want to stay close to him, in case he calls for me."

"I'll have something brought to you here,
siran
," Faradar said.

"Thank you. Just something to drink. I'm not hungry."

"
Torena
?" Faradar asked.

"I'll be down later," Elelar replied, guessing that Tansen wouldn't want her company for long. She'd rarely seen him so tired. His concern for this boy drained him in a way that physical demands rarely did.

Tansen stared at Zarien's door for a long moment, then said absently to Elelar, "He needs some time by himself. I'll go back in and sit with him a little later, after he's asleep." He sank into a chair, for once neglecting his manners, and looked up at Elelar, who stood before him. "I don't want him to wake up alone."

Elelar glanced over her shoulder to make sure Faradar was gone, then asked, "What does this mean for his plans? Your plans?"

"He says we're not going to sea. He says... uh, vulgar things about Sharifar which I really can't repeat to a woman."

"But—"

"He blames the goddess, Elelar. He blames Dar, too. He's... very, very angry."

"Yes, but—"

"He won't go. And I can't go without him."

She thought this over. "No, I suppose not."

"I'd have no idea what to do," Tansen said.

"Except float around in a boat and hope for the best."

"Which seems like a waste of time, given the circumstances on land. Besides... surely someone would need to speak to the sea-born. Someone credible."

"Like a fourteen-year-old boy?" she murmured doubtfully.

Tansen shrugged. "More credible than me, anyhow. He's got those dragonfish scars. Besides, he's one of them. You know what the sea-born are like. Josarian's the only 'drylander' any of them have ever cared about."

The Firebringer's named dropped between them like a volcanic rock, still glowing hot and red with Dar's fury.

But Elelar knew now how she would pay for that betrayal, even if Tansen didn't accept the destiny the Olvar foresaw for her and Mirabar. So she didn't let the sudden anger and sorrow in Tansen's face distract her.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"Take care of business in Shaljir." Looking a little more focused now, he continued, "All those vultures in the Alliance will have to abide by the Dar's will and accept the Yahrdan whom Mirabar and the Guardians recognize."

"
If
they ev—"

"We're only going to use the word
when
with regard to that, Elelar," he instructed. "Particularly whenever
toreni
and members of the Alliance can hear us."

She sighed. "Nonetheless—"

"Meanwhile, Shaljir has got to prepare for Kiloran's assault. Especially with the dry season upon us."

"We've stored water—"

"I noticed. But you'll need to do more than that."

"We're trying to find out Kiloran's plans," said Elelar. "Trying to learn what Baran will do."

"So are we."
 

"Kiloran can't withhold the Idalar River from Shaljir unless Baran helps him."

"Or just fails to hinder him," Tansen pointed out.

"Oh. Yes. True enough." She made a helpless gesture and asked, "What else must the city do?"

"I'll work with the Guardians. Only they have any chance of protecting Shaljir from the Society. And the city-dwellers need to see the Guardians fighting for them, the way the lowlanders and
shallaheen
are seeing it now."

"Derlen the Guardian is here," she advised him. "In my household. He can help you organize the Guardians coming into the city, as well as the ones already here."

"I need to leave soon. But tomorrow I'll send for Radyan to come work with Derlen and the Alliance after I'm gone."

"Radyan?" she said. "I don't know him."

"He's very shrewd. And he comes from Illan—"

"On the banks of the Idalar."

"Yes, so he's quite familiar with what Kiloran can do."

Elelar nodded and raised a new problem with regard to Kiloran. "We need to access the mines of Alizar. The country needs money, Tansen."

He sighed. "I know. I just don't know how to loosen Kiloran's grip on Alizar."

"We've tried to consider—"

"I'm not sure anyone but another waterlord can do it."

"Is there any possibility that another waterlord might?"

Tansen shrugged. "We're working on it."

She saw he didn't mean to tell her more than that, but she knew something of how his mind worked, so she guessed his plan. "You're trying to sow dissension within the Society."

Tansen looked a little annoyed, but she saw that he hadn't really expected to keep it a secret from her. "Fortunately, it's not very difficult."

"How can the Alliance hel—"

"The Alliance," he interrupted, "should be concentrating on stopping the massacres. Here and throughout Sileria."

She made an exasperated gesture. "Do you think we don't know that? Do you think we don't know the danger of offending the Emperor in Valda at this point?"

"The killing of women and children offends
me
, Elelar," he said tersely. "The rebellion is over, and even the Valdani
men
remaining in Sileria are mostly unarmed now. No one hates the Valdani more than I do, but this has to stop."

"How?"

He rubbed his forehead. "I don't know. We have to find a way, though." A moment later, Tansen asked, "Where's your husband? Has he been killed, or did he leave Sil—"

"I don't know where he is." She frowned in irritation as she said, "He took my favorite horse and disappeared. I've had no word of him since. He may well be dead now, for all I know."

Tansen accepted a goblet of wine from a servant who came up the stairs. When the two of them were alone again, he said, "You married a Valdan. You can convince the people—"

She gasped. "Half-Valdan, and I only married him because—"

"It doesn't matter," he insisted. "You're a heroine of the rebellion, loved by the people. You have influence with the Alliance, you're probably the most powerful woman in Shaljir now, and your name is legend even in the mountains. So tell the whole nation that you love Ronall."

"
What?
"

"Pray he's still alive, find him, and make an example of him: the half-Valdani husband who supported your secret work—"

"He never knew!" she protested.

"Who begged the Imperial Council to spare your life, and who went to prison for you after—"

"He didn't go to prison voluntarily!"

Tansen continued, "Who endured torture and suffering in prison to protect—"

"He knew nothing! There was nothing he could tell Commander Koroll! And if he had known anything, he'd have told it all for just one drink, the filthy—"

"Find him and make him a hero, Elelar," Tansen ordered. "Make the people love him the way they love you."

She was aghast. "I
can't
—"

"You have to," he said inflexibly. "If you don't, everyone in Sileria with Valdani blood will be slaughtered within the year. That's not what Josarian wanted, despite how many he killed."

Elelar felt ill. "Tansen..."

He leaned forward. "Don't let Sileria exist as a place where we murder women and children." Their eyes held. "Don't let that be our future,
torena
."

 
She sighed and nodded. She would do her duty. She always had. She supposed that she could bear this, too. Besides, it wasn't as if she expected to live long enough to endure Ronall's company into old age. "But I don't know how to find my husband," she said honestly.

"I'll help. He should be easier to find than a
shallah
or a lowlander. Everyone notices a
toren
. When we go back into the mountains—"

"We? You're taking the boy, then?" she asked in surprise.

He blinked. "Of course. He goes where I go."

She heard pride in his weary voice and supposed it shouldn't startle her. "Even now?"

"Where else would he go?" Tansen replied. "His family is dead. His clan are mostly dead. The sea-bound shun him now. I'm all he has. There is no one else."

It wasn't her affair, but she was fond enough of Tansen to be concerned. "That boy... any boy... any child is a big responsibility, Tansen, and this one is diff—"

"Is that why you've never had one?" he asked coldly.

Elelar flinched. She was surprised at how much his bald question and chilly tone hurt on this subject. She replied with dignity, "I've never had a child because it has never been Dar's will that I have one."

Tansen sighed. "I apologize,
torena
. I was rude." Their gazes held for a moment. "I'm sorry, Elelar. It was unkind of me."

She acknowledged the apology, then asked softly, "Do you know what you're doing?"

"Yes." Seeing that this didn't satisfy her, Tansen said, "Whether chance or destiny brought this boy into my life, Elelar, he has been a gift to me." He looked down and clearly tried not to make the words cut as he explained, "It's as if he was sent to fill the place left empty in my heart when Josarian died."

Elelar wanted to weep for the things she had done. "Or was that place in your heart so empty that it seized upon this boy and now will not let him go?"

"Go where?" he challenged.

She thought about it and admitted, "Nowhere, I suppose. If he has no home left and he has abandoned his quest for the sea king..." She smiled sadly. "I suppose he's yours now, whether you want him or not."

There was a dark, thoughtful expression on his face as he stared at the closed door to Zarien's chamber. "He's a very strong boy," Tansen murmured. "We'll be fine."

"Good," was all she said, though she didn't feel as certain as Tansen did. "I'll leave you alone now. There'll be a servant at the bottom of the stairs all night, in case you want anything."

"Thank you."

She turned to go.

His voice stopped her. "Elelar?"

She didn't turn around. "Yes?"

"I haven't forgotten," he warned her. "I want to see the Olvar."

"Very well." She spoke over her shoulder. "I'll arrange it."

What Tansen thought didn't matter. What he did wouldn't change her plans or her destiny. She could let him talk to the Olvar. It wouldn't do him any good.

"You were right,
siran
," Searlon informed Kiloran in the watery splendor of Kandahar. "Baran is very ill."

"What is wrong with him?" Kiloran asked, pleased.

Searlon shook his head. "No one knows for sure. He's been secretive. But it's been going on for a while, and he's sick enough to have bribed the Sisterhood to tell my informants that he's getting well."

"Ah." Kiloran nodded. Searlon was not like other men, and Baran was a fool to think he could trick the assassin with such a ploy. "Dying?"

"It seems likely,
siran
. But we should consider that it could take a long time."

"Or not," Kiloran said, trying to be optimistic. He considered another problem. "Do you think he's strong enough to kill Mirabar?"

Searlon shrugged. "Possibly. If he catches her off guard."

"Then that will be his plan."

"And what is
our
plan regarding the territory left vacant by Abidan and Liadon?"