Lord of the Shadows (24 page)

“The Goddess told the High Priestess of a miraculous event! There will be an eclipse. The Goddess is sending us a moment of darkness all the world will witness!”

Marqel stared at him in bewilderment. He had said nothing to her about the eclipse since he returned from the Baenlands.

“It is a sign!” he yelled over the panicked murmuring of the crowd. “A sign of both her bounty and her wrath! The High Priestess has assured me the Goddess will speak to all of us! I charge you now to go forth and bring this wondrous news to your people. Let everyone from the Sidorian wastes to the Galina islands witness the power of the Goddess and remove once and for all any doubt that the High Priestess of the Shadowdancers is the Voice of the Goddess!”

In the chaos that followed his announcement, Dirk turned to face the others standing on the podium. Madalan looked set to murder him. Claudio Varell wore a look of quiet horror. Marqel appeared to be rather put out that she'd been upstaged.

“We need to talk,” he said to them.

And so began the reign of the new Lord of the Suns.

irk was the last to enter the anteroom off the main temple where they gathered to object to his sudden and unexpected ascension to the position of Lord of the Suns. Marqel still appeared a little bemused by the whole thing, but neither Claudio nor Madalan were under any illusions about what it meant.

What none of them could figure out was how he had managed it.

“You can't possibly mean to do this,” Madalan cried as soon as he closed the door behind him.

“Why not?”

“Paige Halyn never meant for you to be his successor. He named me! He told me he did!”

“I believe, when you spoke to him, my lady, you were the right hand of the High Priestess. It was the holder of that position he nominated, not you. It was reasonable to assume it was you who would succeed him, but I don't believe he ever said he named you specifically.”

She glared at him suspiciously. “How did you know what was in his will?”

“I didn't know. Lord Varell can confirm that. Nobody knew for certain but Paige Halyn.”

Claudio nodded unhappily. “The will was sealed in my presence, Lady Madalan. Dirk Provin could not possibly have known its contents.”

“Then you must refuse the position,” she insisted. “You must go out there and announce you've changed your mind.”

“I don't think so.”

Madalan turned to Claudio for support. “Are you going to let him get away with this?”

“Of course he's going to let me get away with it,” Dirk told her with quiet confidence. “The alternative is to let you have the job, Madalan, and he would rather disband the Sundancers himself than see that happen.”

Claudio stared at them for a moment, and then looked across at Marqel, who had sat herself down on the small settee and was staring at the three of them with cautious eyes. Marqel might not be the smartest person in the room, but she had a natural sort of animal cunning that served her well when she was faced with uncertainty.

“The High Priestess is remarkably silent on the affair.”

“That's because she has nothing to do with this,” Madalan snapped. “You cannot allow this to happen, Claudio!”

“Why should I object? The lad is right. If he refuses the position, then you'll find a way to take it for yourself, or we go to an election. The only way you can win an election is if my Sundancers start meeting with unfortunate accidents. Either way, the Sundancers are doomed. You have a Shadowdancer as Lord of the Suns, my lady. Be thankful for it!” He turned to Dirk then, but his anger was just as firmly directed at him. “As for you, young man. Have you any notion of what you've unleashed by announcing that eclipse?”

“I know exactly what I've unleashed,” Dirk assured him.

“I seriously doubt that! You have signed the death warrant for the Sundancers. Another episode as dramatic and miraculous as the return of the second sun will see the end of the only shred of decency left in the Church. There will be no more Sundancers. There will be nothing but the barbaric practices of a wicked, self-serving cult founded on drugs and lies.”

“I have a responsibility to the Shadowdancers, too, my lord. I just announced how I intend to rule—without fear or favor. I'm sorry you don't like it, but I won't pretend the Goddess didn't speak to the High Priestess just to keep your Sundancers happy.”

“The Goddess never spoke to anyone,” he scoffed. “Who is it, Madalan? What poor fool with more brains than sense have you found to browbeat into submission this time? Or did you find Neris Veran in the Baenlands and torture the information out of him?”

“Neris Veran is dead,” Dirk told him.

“But his legacy of lies lives on,” Claudio snorted. “And
what is to become of my people? You have made them redundant.”

“Oh, I don't know.” Dirk shrugged. “Perhaps we can find something else for them to do.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Have you considered education?”

“What?”

“Schools, my lord. I understand it was Paige Halyn's fondest wish to establish schools in every village in Senet. I intend to honor that wish and establish a legacy in his name. We'll make them free, which should encourage attendance. And it'll give your Sundancers something to do. As you say, once the eclipse has happened, there won't be much of a role for your lot in the pastoral side of things.”

“It's a stupid idea,” Madalan snapped at him. “Even if the Sundancers could afford it, aren't you aware of the dangers of educating people above their station? That path leads to social collapse.”

“It's ignorance that leads to people standing around cheering a man being burned alive, Madalan,” Claudio retorted. He was clearly surprised and wary of Dirk's suggestion, but seemed cautiously willing to go along with it. For that matter, he would have been cautiously willing to go along with anything that did not involve the disbanding of the Sundancers entirely.

“But Madalan has a point. How will we fund such a massive project?” Claudio asked. “The reason Paige Halyn was never able to do anything about setting up schools was the lack of resources. All our funds were drained by the establishment of the Shadowdancers.”

“Then it's about time the Shadowdancers returned the favor.” Dirk walked across the room to where Marqel was reclining on the couch, watching him warily. He reached down to the diamond choker she wore, snatched it from her throat and tossed it to Claudio.

“Hey! That's mine!”

“That should cover the first year's expenses,” he said, as Claudio fumbled to catch it. “I'll arrange to have an inventory
taken in the Hall of Shadows. There's a vase in the High Priestess's suite that should pay for the second year. You will have the resources, my lord, I assure you of that.”

“I won't let you bankrupt the Shadowdancers to keep a bunch of whining old men and women happy,” Marqel declared, jumping to her feet. She might not care about the morality of Dirk's plans, but she was damn sure who the Shadowdancers' wealth belonged to. “You can't touch the Hall of Shadows or anything in it.”

“Actually, I can. It's in the charter of the Shadowdancers. Clause three hundred and twenty-something. I checked.”

“That was remarkably foresighted of you, my lord,” Claudio observed. He was still angry, but he was enjoying seeing Marqel even angrier than he was at this unexpected turn of events.

“I'm a remarkably foresighted person,” Dirk told him. “It would pay to remember that, my lord.”

“This is intolerable!”

Dirk turned on Madalan impatiently. “Shut up, Madalan. I just handed your Shadowdancers a chance to consolidate their power for an eternity. After the eclipse, there won't be a soul on Ranadon who doubts the High Priestess speaks for the Goddess. You'll be able to burn whole villages down at Landfall if that's what you want. If I choose to throw a bone to the Sundancers to keep them happy, then that's my concern, not yours. Be grateful for what I've given you, or when I finish going through those notes from Omaxin and I work out when the next Age of Shadows is due, the first person I tell about it will be a
Sun
dancer.”

“It was
you
?” Claudio gasped, as he realized what Dirk was implying. “
You're
the one who worked out when the eclipse was due?”

“One of my many talents, my lord,” Dirk agreed.

“But why tell them?”
he asked indicating Madalan and Marqel. “If you'd only come to us …”

“You would have ignored my advice, the same way Paige Halyn ignored Neris when he told him what Belagren was up to during the Age of Shadows until it was too late.”

“So rather than expose the truth, you'd perpetrate the lies?” he concluded bitterly. “You'll actively aid this conspiracy of evil?”

“Gladly,” Dirk told him, without a hint of remorse. He turned back to Madalan. “If it's any consolation, my lady, you can have your old job back. You are once again the right hand of the High Priestess. I suggest you keep it firmly around her throat.”

“You can't do that,” Marqel objected. “If you're leaving, I want to pick my own right hand.”

“You'll do exactly what you're told, Marqel,” he ordered. “Or would you prefer it if I went to Antonov and told him about some of your other … misdemeanors?”

Marqel took the hint and crossed her arms sulkily. She wasn't going to endanger her newfound power by letting Dirk tell Antonov about what she'd done to Alenor.

Madalan looked at the two of them with a suspicious frown. “What was all that about? What have you got on her?”

“Nothing you need concern yourself with, Madalan. You are her right hand, which means you are effectively running the Shadowdancers. Leave her at the palace to amuse Antonov, and do what you're best at. Trust me, Marqel is doing what
she's
best at.”

“You're up to something, Dirk Provin,” Madalan said.

“Of course I'm
up
to something,” Dirk laughed disparagingly. “I was born with a gift only one other man on Ranadon has ever been afflicted with, and I saw what happened to him. I'm protecting myself, Madalan, on a scale you can't even comprehend.”

“So what will you do now?” Claudio asked.

“The first thing I'm going to do is pay Antonov a visit and break the news to him. Then I'm going to Bollow to get ready for the eclipse.”

“You're not going anywhere until I know every detail about this damned eclipse,” Madalan declared. “I want to know down to the last minute. I want to know when, I want to know where and I want to know how long it will last. Give me that, and I'll play along with you. Deny me and I'll destroy you, Dirk
Provin, even if it means destroying the Shadowdancers along with you.”

He shrugged. “The announcement's been made now, so there's no harm in sharing the details. Did you want to know them, too, Lord Varell?”

He glared at Dirk and then shook his head. “I want no part of this abomination.”

“You can't really avoid it, my lord,” Dirk warned. “Because this time, it won't just be a sacrifice held overlooking a battlefield marking the Goddess's miracle. It'll be the biggest celebration ever witnessed on Ranadon. It's a long time until the next eclipse, so we're going to make the most of it.”

“I'm not sure what's worse—your gift for deception or your cynicism.”

“You haven't even seen close to my worst, Lord Varell,” Dirk assured him. “And now, if you don't mind, I wish to be left in peace for a while. I still have to face Antonov today, and I'd like some time to prepare for it.”

“This isn't over,” Madalan warned. “You've been named as Paige Halyn's successor, Dirk, but that's a world away from being confirmed in the position. I'll find a way to prevent you ever being sworn in.”

“Then you'd better get to it, my lady, because the swearing-in will take place just as soon as I can arrange it.”

When they were gone, he locked the door behind them and sank down to the floor with his back against the door, his legs trembling so hard they could no longer hold him. He hadn't won yet, but their arguments were stalled for the time being.

Dirk put his head between his knees to stop the dizziness, and forced himself to breathe deeply and evenly. Then he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

This is never going to work!
he told himself unhappily.
They'll slip a knife in my ribs the minute I step out of this door, or the Brotherhood will get me on the way back to the palace, or Antonov will slit my throat when he hears the news
…

The list of his enemies was growing in direct proportion to the number of friends he had lost. And things could only get worse.

“Why did I ever
listen
to you?” Dirk asked aloud.

Not unexpectedly, there was no answer. He smiled faintly, thinking if he had heard a voice answering his question, he would be as crazy as the maniac who had suggested this.