"Then you are to repeat your heretical nonsense to no one. In fact I want your people out of this cavern altogether. We're about to go to war, Rudi. I'll need your Shadowdancers to help the wounded.

I don't have time for them to sit in here, poring over something they don't understand, trying to prove the High Priestess is a liar."

"That wasn't my intention, your highness," Rudi objected. "I was merely trying to point out that-"

Kirsh glared at him. "Get your people out of the cavern. I don't want anyone in here without my permission from now on."

"As you wish, your highness," Rudi reluctantly agreed, but there was a gleam of malicious satisfaction in his eyes.

Or maybe it was the torchlight that made Kirsh wonder if Rudi was deliberately trying to destroy his belief that Marqel spoke the truth.

Chapter 85

Dirk met Kirsh and Rees in the no-man's-land between the ruins and the vast camp of Misha's army. Although accompanied by their captains, they rode out alone to talk on the open ground between them, out of earshot of their escorts. The second sun beat down mercilessly, glittering off Lake Ruska in the distance, making it almost too bright to look upon.

Dirk reined in first and waited for Kirsh and his brother to reach him. He hadn't seen Rees since the day of the eclipse ceremony, and by the scowl his brother wore, he guessed there was little hope of reason from that quarter. Kirsh looked tired and careworn as he trotted across the broken ground, as if the strain of the past months had aged him far beyond his years.

"So now you're a general," Rees remarked icily as he and the prince reined in to confront Dirk.

"Not by choice."

"You say that a lot, you know," Kirsh remarked. "I didn't mean it. I didn't plan for it to work out this way. It's always somebody else's fault."

Dirk shrugged, prepared to acknowledge a certain amount of truth in Kirsh's accusation. "I'm quite willing to accept the blame, Kirsh. But my mistake was making Marqel High Priestess and I'll probably regret that deed as long as I live."

"So now it's her fault?"

Dirk shook his head. "We're equally to blame, Kirsh. We both put ideas in her head that she could be more than she should have been."

"All I ever did was love her, Dirk."

"And you think that wasn't a dream beyond imagining for a Landfall b.a.s.t.a.r.d picked up out of a traveling show? I'll admit I should never have set her up as the Voice of the G.o.ddess, but be honest enough to admit your own contribution."

"What do you mean, you set her up as the Voice of the G.o.ddess?" Rees demanded, obviously confused.

"I told her what to say," Dirk informed him, "just as Neris Veran told Belagren what to say when he discovered when the Age of Shadows was due to end."

"You took advantage of her," Kirsh accused, angrily. "You manipulated something that should have been sacred and used it to your own ends."

"She never spoke to the G.o.ddess, Kirsh. I told Marqel how to get through the delta. It took me weeks to get her to memorize the instructions. n.o.body has ever spoken to the G.o.ddess. Not Belagren, and certainly not Marqel."

"You're lying."

"I've no need to lie. I have an army at my back three times the size of yours and don't think for a moment I'm going to try to lead it myself. I have no interest in seeking glory in battle."

"With your limited experience, there won't be much glory to speak of," Rees suggested with a contemptuous sneer.

"My experience or lack of it isn't the issue, Rees. I've got plenty of experienced campaigners among my staff. I'm more than happy to let them decide the best way to annihilate your forces in the most efficient way possible."Rees glared at him. "Then why did you ask for this meeting? If that's what you think, go back to your staff of experienced campaigners, little brother, and sound the attack."

"I was hoping you'd both see reason."

"This is not a question of reason," Kirsh announced flatly. "I swore an oath to my father."

"You swore an oath to a madman who was being manipulated by a murderous little s.l.u.t with no thought for anything but her own ambition. She murdered Belagren. She almost killed Alenor out of jealousy and spite, and I have my suspicions about a few others who got in her way, too."

"You're lying," Kirsh insisted, growing angrier with every word Dirk uttered. "I've seen her speak to the G.o.ddess. I have proof."

"How did Antonov die, Kirsh?"

"The G.o.ddess took him."

Dirk snorted skeptically. "And who decided the cause of death? Marqel?"

"It makes no difference, Dirk. You're clutching at sunbeams. He wasn't murdered, and I wouldn't try to cover for his killer if he was. I'd burn the man myself before I let anybody get away with killing my father. Antonov was alone when he died. There is no question of foul play."

"Doesn't it strike you as being just a tad convenient he died right after you swore an oath to see Marqel restored? He wasn't drinking peppermint tea, was he?"

"You think Marqel killed him?" Kirsh scoffed. "Don't be absurd! Anyway, she was with me when he died. The last person who saw Antonov alive was Eryk. Perhaps you think it was he that killed my father?"

Dirk was genuinely shocked by that news. "What is Eryk doing here?"

"Serving the G.o.ddess," Rees snapped.

"Send him back," Dirk urged. "He'll be safer with me."

"Only if we lose, Dirk."

"There's no chance you can win, Rees."

"The prophecies say we can."

Dirk looked at him askance. "What prophecies?"

Kirsh smiled. "You didn't know about them, did you? Perhaps if you'd stayed longer in Omaxin you might have read them for yourself. Marqel has told me what they say and the G.o.ddess has confirmed it.

They foretold my father's death. They call you the false redeemer."

"Marqel read your prophecies for you and foretold Antonov's demise?" Dirk laughed. "She can barely make out her own name, Kirsh. And I should know. I taught her how to read."

"Are you jealous you're not the only one who can read the writings in the cavern?" Rees asked.

"I might be if I could read them," he shrugged. "I really have no idea what they say, and neither does anybody else on Ranadon. Especially not an illiterate like Marqel."

"But you claimed you could translate them," Kirsh reminded him. "I was there when you read them to me."

"I also said there'd be an eclipse, Kirsh. Do you remember that?"

Kirsh fell silent, his expression dark and brooding.

"Let it go, Kirsh," Dirk urged. "Come back to Avacas with me and let's sort this out sensibly. Thereis nothing to be gained by going to war."

"And if he did go back with you?" Rees asked. "What then? Has Misha had a change of heart?

Have you? Have you decided to let the Shadowdancers remain? Will you support their High Priestess?"

"Even if I didn't intend to destroy the Shadowdancers, Rees, Misha won't stand for them. And Marqel cannot be allowed to remain High Priestess. She murdered Belagren and probably Antonov the moment he was of no further use to her. If you insist on supporting her, she'll be the death of you, too."

"You offer nothing but lies, Dirk," Kirsh said heavily.

"Everything you've done is a lie. You hold the rank of Lord of the Suns under false pretenses. You have no faith in the G.o.ddess. You accuse Marqel of being evil for doing exactly what you have done.

You claim she's lying about the prophecies, yet I stood there and watched you read them to me. You claim Marqel killed Belagren, yet you willingly admit you set her up to replace Belagren. And now you want us to believe the High Priestess he believed in so ardently killed my father. You drove him to insanity, Dirk, and what's more, I suspect you're proud of it."

"You know why I lied, Kirsh. I've explained it to you a dozen times since Bollow."

"And what about the things you haven't told me?"

"What things?"

"Like the existence of Johan Thorn's wife and daughter?" he asked. "What was the point of keeping them a secret, Dirk? G.o.ddess, when I think about you standing there in Johan's house in Mil, claiming you didn't know who those women were... You didn't even blink when you saw them. I suppose there's no chance Alexin really killed them, is there? You were secretly allied with my father's enemies all along, weren't you? Does Misha know of your talent for playing both sides against the middle? How long does he have before you turn on him, too?"

"Kirsh..."

"You always claimed you didn't want to be a king, and now I realize why. You don't need to be a king. You're much happier manipulating things from behind the throne. Misha's playing right into your hands, isn't he? How lucky for you he came back to Avacas a changed man. And what could be better for you than a little sister sitting on the Eagle Throne who'll do anything you tell her?"

"If you choose to believe such an idiotic scenario, Kirsh, then you're as mad as Antonov was."

"I have no choice, if my choice is to pick one liar over another."

"It's a question of motives, Kirsh."

"And your motives are so much purer than ours, is that it?" Rees said.

Dirk stared at Rees, unsure what he'd done to engender such bitterness in his brother. "I did what I did because it was the right thing to do, Rees."

"You did what you did because you wanted vengeance," Kirsh corrected. "The fact that it had global consequences was just a convenient peg for you to hang your morals on. There is nothing n.o.ble in what you've done. You simply set out to get even with Belagren and my father and decided to bring the whole world along for the ride."

"I exposed a lie, Kirsh. A lie that was driving the whole of Ranadon along a path to total barbarism."

"And the end justifies the means? Who the h.e.l.l set you up as the moral guardian of Ranadon? You don't believe in the G.o.ddess, so where does your authority come from, Dirk? What gives you the right to decide the path the whole world should take?"

The question surprised Dirk, particularly when he realized he couldn't think of a satisfactory reply."Don't have an answer for that one? Funny, I thought you had an answer for everything."

"Kirsh, this is getting us nowhere. Stand your troops down and come back to Avacas with me," he pleaded. "Talk to Misha. However much you despise what I've done, you have no quarrel with him."

"I didn't have a quarrel with him," Kirsh pointed out coldly. "Until he sent an army against me with you at its head."

"The people you're so determined to protect tried to kill him, Kirsh. Do you blame him for being upset?"

"I blame him for reacting like a prince, not like a brother."

"He's the Lion of Senet now. Your father would have reacted in exactly the same way if he was in Misha's position."

"But we'll never know that for certain, will we, Dirk? My father is dead."

Dirk sighed, realizing they had done nothing but talk around in circles. He gathered up the reins of his mount and sat a little straighter in the saddle.

"You've got until second sunrise tomorrow, Kirsh. After that, the matter is out of my hands. There will be no quarter given."

"And no quarter asked," Kirsh replied.

Dirk stared at him, thinking that if anybody had suggested that he might one day face Kirsh over a battlefield, he would have laughed at him and called him mad. But then war was a particular type of madness. Especially one as unnecessary as this one.

"Kirsh..."

Kirsh didn't answer him. He turned his horse and cantered toward his escort. Rees watched him leave and then turned back to glare at Dirk.

"Mother would be proud of you." It wasn't meant as a compliment. Rees's voice was bitter, almost petulant.

"I wonder what she'd think of you," Dirk retorted, surprised at how angry Rees's taunt had made him. "Tell me, did you stay and watch your own mother burn or did you simply walk away once you'd issued the order to have her killed?"

"Morna deserved to die, Dirk. She was a traitor and a harlot."

"She was our mother, Rees."

"She was your mother, Dirk. She was never mine. Morna abandoned me. For you she gave up everything. Don't you dare sit there and try to make me feel guilty for seeing justice was done."

"There was nothing just about burning your own mother alive, Rees."

"And where is the justice in abandoning your husband and child to run off with a lover?" Rees asked resentfully. "You might hold Morna up as a paragon of virtue, Dirk, but to me she was nothing more than a treacherous wh.o.r.e who tried to raise her lover's b.a.s.t.a.r.d as another man's son."

"You couldn't possibly remember her leaving Elcast, Rees. You were barely old enough to walk when she left you to join Johan."

"I remember when she came back, though," Rees said. "I remember when you were born. And I remember spending the rest of my childhood being pushed aside for you."

"That's nonsense."

"You were always her favorite. She used to brag about how special you were. I wonder what she'dthink of you now? Lord of the Suns! You've made a mockery of her whole pitiful cause, haven't you?

You haven't just turned your back on her, you're actively aiding her enemies. You should be grateful I killed her. At least she can't see you like this."

Dirk had not felt the urge to hit anyone so badly since the morning Belagren died and he'd slapped Marqel. He knew what Rees was doing. He was trying to provoke him. Trying to justify his own role in this fiasco.