The Destroyer Goddess (33 page)

He gasped when he saw them, panicked, started to run, then froze in his tracks, apparently afraid he might fall into whatever trap had taken them. 

Tansen stepped into the moonlight and, before the man could call for help, he instructed in an urgent whisper, "Don't cry out! I think he's nearby."

The assassin drew his
shir
and backed away from Tansen, radiating hot suspicion in the eerie volcano-red moonlight. "Who are you?"

"Kiloran sent me to help protect your master." He held up his
shir
so the assassin could see the proof of his allegiance. "Geriden is in danger." Tansen gestured to the two bodies and shook his head. "It looks like he got here before me."

"He?"

"Keep your voice down. He's probably nearby."

"He?" the assassin repeated, evincing a habit of obedience as he lowered his voice to a whisper.

"Tansen."

"Tan..." The young assassin looked around with wild energy. "
Tansen
is here?" 

His horrified tone was flattering. Even a disciplined
shatai
enjoyed being so feared by his enemies.

"Yes, Tansen," Tansen replied. "Haven't you been warned?"

"Warned?" the assassin repeated, still looking around.

"That he's vowed to kill Geriden next."

"What? No! Are you sure?"

"Pull yourself together," Tansen ordered in a whisper, coming closer. "You're under attack."

"We can't be under..." The assassin finally focused on Tansen. "We're under attack?"

"Unless," Tansen gestured to the two corpses, "you think they're just taking a little nap."

"But... but the alarm hasn't been sounded."

"The alarm..." Tansen looked toward the house. "You think Geriden's already dead?"

"What? No!" A pause. "Geriden? Dead?"

"Tansen's gotten into the house," Tansen said with certainty.

"No, he couldn't possibly," the young assassin said.

"Who knows what those Guardians of his can do?"

"They can't..." Ragged breathing. "You think they could—"

"Abidan and Liadon are dead. Ferolen. So many others."

"No," the assassin protested. "It's too quiet. If Tansen got into the house, Geriden would sound the... the alarm... Unless..."

"Unless Tansen killed him in his sleep," Tansen suggested.

"Geriden? No, he can't be dead!" 

"If he's not dead, then we'd better wake him up." He glanced at the corpses and added, "Tansen is here, even if he hasn't killed Geriden yet."

"Yes." The assassin nodded. "Yes, we've got to wake Geriden." He was about to bellow his master's name.

Tansen reminded him, "Quietly. No need to let Tansen know that we know he's here." 

No need to brings dozens of assassins down on my head
.

The assassin nodded and, to Tansen's surprise, picked up some pebbles and threw them at a shuttered window in the house which squatted on the falls. He did this twice more before someone opened the shutters and peered out at them. It was a young woman, and her face was alight with expectation as she gazed out, across the ensorcelled water, at the assassin.

Ah
, Tansen thought,
he's done this before. Often, I'll bet
.

While the girl softly greeted the assassin, her voice rich with promise, Tansen tucked Kiloran's
shir
into his boot, not wanting her to see it.

"Wake your father," the young assassin said urgently to the girl. "Tell him it's very important. I've got to speak to him."

She nodded and disappeared. As Tansen and the assassin waited in the shadows, Tansen made a few more remarks designed to keep the young man in a state of confused panic. Finally, in a display that made Tansen feel a little queasy, the water in the river started churning, crystallizing, and then solidifying until it was a smooth, hard surface which he and the assassin could walk across. 

Tansen had already guessed that Geriden wouldn't let any assassins sleep inside his modest house, not with a marriageable daughter in residence, so he acted immediately. The moment he was across the threshold, he seized his young companion and broke his neck. To murder a girl's sweetheart right in front of her was a cruel and grisly thing, but this was war, and Tansen knew that even one mistake now would ensure his death. 

He heard the girl scream as the young man's body hit the floor, but he was already reaching inside his tunic for one of the
shir
he had taken from Geriden's slain men. He threw it across the room, aiming for the middle-aged man who had recognized the trap and was now attempting to bring water through the window to defend himself. 

Geriden screamed in agony when the
shir
pierced his thigh. He lost control of his magic, and the roaring river water fell away from the window, no longer a threat to Tansen. Relieved he wouldn't have to use the girl as a hostage, Tansen ignored her, crossed the room, and pressed his second
shir
of Geriden's to the waterlord's throat. 

"Tell her to look away," Tansen advised him.

"Who are you?" Geriden cried.

"My master got tired of waiting for Tansen to kill you."

"Help!" the girl screamed.

"Tell her," Tansen warned.

"I'll give you anything," Geriden promised.

"It's too late for that."

The girls screams were attracting attention. Tansen doubted anyone else could cross the river right now, but he still needed to finish this fast and disappear.

"You can't do this!" Geriden shouted, tears streaming down his face from the pain of the
shir
in his leg.

"It has to be this way."

Tansen slit his throat. Geriden clawed at him in panic for a moment, then shuddered and sagged, his eyes closing as he died.

The girl ran forward, flinging herself on her father's bloody body as shrieks of wild grief and terror tore through her.

But the waterlords had taught Tansen to be ruthless. So he grabbed her hair and hauled her to her feet.

"Listen to me," he ordered.

Her eyes full of hot hatred, she snarled, "His men will kill you for this,
sriliah!
"

"Tell his men," Tansen said sternly, "that they may serve my master loyally when he takes over this territory, or they may die. There is no third option."

"Your master?" she hissed.

He moved away from her and opened the shutters of a window overlooking the gorge. He looked down at the raging river far below and wished he had asked his son for a few swimming lessons.

"
Your
master?" the girl shrieked. "There is no master here but Geriden! Geriden is master here, you
sriliah!
You filthy, stinking, dung-kissing bastard! You master will die terribly for this! Your master will pay! He will
pay
, I tell you!" 

Tansen climbed out onto the ledge, half-hoping the girl would push him so he wouldn't have to steel himself for the jump. But she seemed to have forgotten him now in favor of keening over her father's body, so it was up to him. He looked down at the gorge, so sinister and violent in the darkly orange light of the moons, in the wildly churning fury of the water he had just freed forever from Geriden. Tansen wondered if Josarian had been this terrified upon looking into the caldera at Darshon before he jumped.

No, Josarian had had all those mind-clouding potions of the
zanareen
to keep him calm and the passionate beckoning of the goddess to distract him. 

And here am I, without even a little fire brandy to get me through this
.

He briefly considered praying to Dar, but then decided that might be tempting Her too much. 

Instead, he recalled a Kintish proverb and muttered to himself, "Whatever doesn't kill us sets us free."

Then he jumped into the roaring river gorge, hoping that he would survive the fall well enough to worry about drowning.

Chapter Twelve

Anyone can do wrong, 

but to be loved for it takes art.

                                    —Baran

"What did you
do?
" Zarien asked in horrified wonder.

"I jumped into a very deep river gorge," Tansen replied.

"
Why?
"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Tansen lowered himself gingerly onto a bench in the Sanctuary where he had left Zarien days ago.

"Next time," Zarien suggested, "you might just consider fighting a dragonfish."

"Are they easier to kill than waterlords?"

"Well, I didn't live through my only battle with one," Zarien admitted, hovering over him, "so perhaps not."

Tansen smiled up at the boy, having missed him. 

He hadn't seen his own face since the jump into the gorge, but he knew that the rest of him looked pretty grim. His many large bruises were already a rainbow of colors so vivid they rivaled the never-ending display of dancing lights at the summit of Darshon. Several enormous gashes and deep lacerations added to the impression that he was more dead than alive, and a few of his bones, though not broken, were still protesting his dramatic escape from Geriden's lair.

"You should probably help me improve my swimming, in case I ever have to do that again." Tansen added, "Not that it's an experience I'm ever going to repeat, if there's any possible way to avoid it."

Stunned from the fall, he had immediately been swept into a terrifying torrent which introduced him to the blunt edges of many rocks. Most of Sileria was dying of thirst, and he had nearly drowned in the newly freed rapids below Geriden's home.

"So now another waterlord is dead," Zarien said.

"A very minor one. And, if things go well, his death will cause two great ones to turn on each other."

"Do you really think they will?"

"I don't know," Tansen admitted. "But I'm certainly going to give them all the help I can."

Searlon arrived at Kandahar as summoned, politely greeted Kiloran, and said, "I understood from your message that the matter was urgent,
siran
."

"I'm aware that you have plans you're eager to pursue—"

"Yes."

"—but there is something of utmost importance which I need you to do first."

"Then, of course, I shall give it all my attention."

"You were right about Cheylan."

"Ah." Searlon smiled. "His intimate knowledge of our enemies is indeed proving to be useful, isn't it?"

"Very. Of course, Cheylan is... somewhat less trustworthy than a venomous serpent." Kiloran sighed. "I find I almost pity Verlon."

Searlon shrugged. "Certainly Cheylan has proven, in Wyldon's territory, that he is strong and can resist waterlords. But he cannot rule water like one. So whatever Cheylan's ambitions are, surely he needs Verlon alive, at least for the time being?"

"I think Cheylan's ambition," Kiloran said, "is to rule Sileria."

"On what basis?" Searlon asked, his expression both contemptuous and dismissive.

"Who knows? It doesn't matter. What matters is that the rash ambition which has led him to betray Mirabar for having the audacity to align her power with other men will now lead
us
to what we want."

Searlon drew in a swift, sharp breath. "He got Mirabar to tell him who she foreseen in her visions."

"Yes. I know who the new Yahrdan is," Kiloran said with immense satisfaction. "And
where
he is."

"So all that remains is for us to kill him."

"And, by all accounts, it's going to be considerably easier than killing the Firebringer was." Kiloran added, needing Searlon to understand what Cheylan himself had clearly understood upon relating the information, "Especially if we're willing to be ruthless."

"Of course."

"This is a situation," Kiloran said, preparing the assassin, "a challenge, which calls for new solutions. Old rules and old ways can no longer apply to us if we are to prevail."

Searlon studied him for a moment before saying, "You and I have come too far to turn back now,
siran
. We have no choice but to prevail."