The Destroyer Goddess (52 page)

"Of course he did!" Her voice was harsh with self-condemnation.

"The boy was killed in a Society ambush." Tansen suddenly realized what that meant. "Ah. And Cheylan has been plotting with Verlon."

"Yes. Verlon may have killed Semeon, but I'm sure Cheylan is the one who's responsible. The one who told Verlon where the boy was and when he was vulnerable." Mirabar dragged her hand down her face now and let him see the tears in her glowing eyes. "And I'm the one who told Cheylan—"

"Mira, he'd have killed the boy anyhow."

"You don't know that. Maybe he—"

"Of course he would. What Baran said to you is right." Her husband's name slithered between them like a poisonous snake. "Cheylan has betrayed everyone, and he has done so with as little risk to himself as possible, right up until he abducted Elelar. Just knowing what anyone in Sileria knows about your prophecy, he would have decided to kill the boy. Cheylan wouldn't have taken the chance of Semeon's being the one you foresaw. Maybe he wouldn't even have taken the risk of letting the boy grow up to be as powerful as you." 

Tansen thought it would be tactless to mention how profoundly relieved he was that Mirabar had long ago decided—and had convinced Cheylan—that Zarien was not this child of fire and water and sorrow whom she sought. Tansen had always disliked Cheylan, but even he had never suspected the Guardian was capable of killing a child. Now that he knew better, he gave silent thanks that at least it hadn't been
his
child. 

He studied the way Mirabar's fire-red hair glowed in the golden light of the ordinary fire he had built and realized how much else he was thankful for, too. "Cheylan might well have killed you, too, except that he has no gift of prophecy himself."

"Maybe he does but just doesn't tell—"

"No, I don't think he'd have tried so hard to win your trust if he hadn't needed you and your visions so much."

"I should never have trusted him," she moaned.

"No, but, as Kiloran says, mistakes are so easily made. Cheylan was very good at winning trust where he wanted it. You, Kiloran, Searlon, Verlon, Semeon, other Guardians. Even Elelar, who is not prone to trust, apparently trusted him when she left her estate with him. He's a shrewd deceiver." Tansen paused and added, "He and Elelar might have found a lot in common if he had tried courting her instead of abducting her."

Despite her tears, she choked on a laugh. "He probably would have preferred that, but he knew he had very little time." After a moment she asked, "Why her, do you suppose?"

"Don't your visions tell you why she was chosen?"

Mirabar shook her head.

Tansen thought it over and admitted, "In many ways, there could be no better choice." Her appalled gaze made him continue, "She's an educated aristocrat who understands political scheming, balancing power, playing factions against each other, and mixing lies with truth to achieve a goal. These are all things even a ruler chosen by Dar and foretold in prophecy will have to learn and understand to rule Sileria effectively."

"She's also..." Mirabar rubbed her face and grimaced. "A great heroine of the rebellion, loved by the people. And I suppose the
toreni
might not accept a
shallah
  as Sileria's ruler, even if the Guardians insisted."

"It would be difficult," he agreed. "Elelar also has respect and influence in the Alliance. Although no one can claim ultimate power in Sileria without our support, it's also true that it probably can't be done without their support, either."

"And if the father is descended from both Daurion and Marjan..." She frowned and didn't finish the thought.

Cheylan was probably descended from Marjan through Verlon, Mirabar had told Tansen. He hadn't found the revelation about Cheylan's relationship with Verlon that astonishing, having seen the mingled familiarity and enmity between those two during the rebellion. Though it never would have occurred to him, it certainly answered the vague question which had existed in his mind about those two.

Then he remembered Ronall. "I wonder how Elelar's husband will take this news when Najdan finds him." Tansen had been so worried about Zarien that he hadn't even thought of this until now.

"Elelar's Valdani husband..." Mirabar gasped. "Surely Dar wouldn't choose a Valdan to be involved in this?"

"You know much better than I what Dar might or might not do," he reminded her. "But Ronall could well be another reason Elelar was chosen."

"A
Valdan?
"

"He's half-Silerian," Tansen pointed out. "And he looks and sounds Silerian. But having a Valdan connected to this child could help improve our relationship with the Valdani—and, after all, we don't want them trying to invade us again."

"You mean they'll view him as an ally?"

"It would be very convenient for Sileria if they did."

"But if he's not really the child's father—"

"But if the Valdani
thought
he was—"

"Ah." Mirabar nodded. "Then they'd be more likely to leave us in peace."

"Especially since Ronall has begun trying to save the remaining Valdani in Sileria from being massacred. The Imperial Council will like that." Tansen thought it over and added, "Silerians might even obey Ronall if they thought he was father to the Yahrdan."

"No more killings," she murmured. "But I thought
Toren
Ronall was a drunkard and a fool?"

"Everyone seems to know that," Tansen muttered. "And, in truth, he is. Well, a drunkard, anyhow. But a fool? I don't know. He often seems that way, but now I think Zarien was right all along. Ronall is mostly just very unhappy." He shrugged and added, "And loving Elelar hasn't helped."

"He loves her?" Mirabar sounded surprised—which was understandable, considering how often and openly Elelar had cuckolded her husband.

"Oh, yes. He loves her, all right. Anyone can see that in him." Tansen sighed. "Meanwhile, she doesn't even want to be in the same country with him and probably wishes he was dead."

Suddenly the air hummed with renewed tension, and Tansen felt the unasked questions hovering between them. Knowing he was inviting another pointless argument, he nonetheless ventured, "So, in light of your visions, it's evidently a good thing I didn't kill Elelar after Josarian died."

"Yes." Apparently she didn't want to argue about that anymore, either. "If only Cheylan hadn't convinced me to let him go after Elelar alone. If only I'd gone. Or if only I'd sent assassins with him, as Baran suggested."

"Cheylan would have just tricked you or killed them," he pointed out.

"I had finally accepted my duty... even though it meant having
that woman
in the same home with me." Mirabar gave a watery sigh. "But if I hadn't been so stubborn, resisted for so long... If I had accepted my duty sooner, before Cheylan appeared at Belitar, maybe everything would be different now, and Elelar would be at Belitar now, where Baran and I could protect her."

Tansen couldn't help asking, "
Would
Baran have protected her?"

"Well, not
her
, I suppose. But Baran protects Belitar, and I certainly wouldn't have let her leave Belitar while the Society survives in Sileria. Elelar would have been safe there until I knew what to do." 

Of course. Kiloran would kill Elelar if he knew the truth. Still, Tansen couldn't resist asking, "But doesn't the Society survive at Belitar, too?"

"Not really." She shrugged. "Baran chose our side in this war, and his men follow him loyally."

"Who's to say Baran won't choose something else once Kiloran is dead?"

"He won't," said Mirabar.

This appearance of loyalty to her husband annoyed him. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because I know him very well now."

"Are you saying he's not insane and treacherous, that he just pretends?" Tansen asked skeptically.

"No, he's even more dangerous than I realized when I married him. All the same, I trust him in this."

"Why?" he demanded.

"I understand him now, and I know what he wants."

Tansen stared at her profile, noticing how she avoided looking at him. A terrible trembling started deep inside of him, making it a strain to keep his voice even as he said, "It's more than that, isn't it? You've become... fond of him." He would not—could not—use a word like
love
. Not for her and another man.

"'Fond' might be an exaggeration." When he made no effort to fill the tense silence, she continued awkwardly, "I have feelings which... I mean, he's a man who..." She concluded quietly, "I couldn't turn on him, Tansen."

"I'm not asking you to." He heard how cold his voice sounded, but he couldn't help it.

"The ironic thing is that, given the right incentive, he could turn on
me
. Even kill me." Mirabar made a little sound and placed a hand over her belly, looking down to contemplate the child that rested therein. Baran's child.

Her child, too,
Tansen reminded himself, trying to keep his wits.
It will be hers, too
.

"Well, no," she amended. "He couldn't turn on me. Not anymore. He wants this child, and he wants me to raise her."

"And before you were pregnant? You lived with him believing  he might kill you, and you stayed there?" His voice was far from cold now. Anger, fear, and desperate jealousy heated it. "You stayed with that madman, slept in his bed, let him frighten and threaten you? And you never sent for me?"

His attack didn't make her angry. She just shook her head, her expression contemplative. "It's so complicated at Belitar. You can't imagine how... different things seem when you're there."

"I've been there. I can imagine."

"No, Baran is far more... And then there are..." Mirabar seemed to reach a sudden decision. "There are things you need to know. If he and I don't live, you've got to protect them."

"Who?"

"The Beyah-Olvari."

"Fires of Dar! You didn't tell him about—"

"No! He told me."

Tansen frowned. "How does he know about them?"

As she explained, her warm voice soft and melodious in the volcano-glowing night, so many things became clear to him, from the origin of Marjan's power over water a thousand years ago to the Olvar's insistence in Shaljir that, somewhere else in Sileria, other Beyah-Olvari had survived.

"They want to meet the others," she concluded.

"Yes," he said, feeling dazed. "I mean, so does the clan in Shaljir."

"We can't arrange it without exposing them, can we?"

"Probably not," he agreed. "And we can't risk exposing them..." He made a vague gesture. "Until our own problems are resolved."

"But someday..."

He nodded. "If we kill all the waterlords—"

"No."

"What do you mean,
no?"

"I mean, we have to break the Society, now and forever. That's what this war is really about. But Baran is right—"

"Do we have to keep talking about him?" Tansen didn't care that he sounded petulant. He couldn't stand the other man's constant presence between them.

"There will always be water magic in Sileria. No one can change that. Not you, not anyone. No one
should
change that."

"It's harmless among the Beyah-Olvari, Mira, but—"

"Tansen,
I
can't let you change that."

"You're asking me not to kill Baran."

"No, I'm telling you I will never let you kill my daughter."

He was stunned. "I would
never
hurt your child! Any child! I would never hurt you or anything you love. I couldn't. How could you even—" He stopped abruptly. "How do you know it's a girl?"

"The Olvara told me."

"And what makes you think that I would ever..." He drew in a breath so sharp it almost hurt. "Dar have mercy.
Baran's
daughter." He wondered stupidly why this had never occurred to him before. "A child of water... Sired by one of the greatest waterlords who's ever lived... A child Baran wanted enough to betray the Society... Of
course
."

"My daughter—"

"Will be one of
them
."

"No!" Mirabar's fierceness forced his galloping thoughts to focus on her words. "She will have the power they do, but she'll better than they are. Better than you, or me, or any of us. She'll help Elelar's child make a new Sileria where no one will ever again starve us for water or kill us for failing to pay tribute for it. She'll respect Dar, as they never have, and she'll learn from the Beyah-Olvari, and from me."

"And from her father, too?" he prodded. "Dar alone knows how many people that demented husband of yours has killed—"

"How many have
you
killed?"

"You know what I mean!"

"Baran will not be there!" she snapped. 

Tansen waited in fuming silence for an explanation of this statement, but didn't expect the one which he got.

"Baran is ill and very near death."

"
What?"
he blurted.

"I'm not even sure he can last until our child is born."

He didn't know what to say for a moment. "You've kept that secret very successfully."

"Outside of Belitar, you may be the only person who knows."

"
May
be?"

"We believe Kiloran suspects."

"Dar give me patience!" Tansen said in exasperation. "You didn't think this news was worth sharing with me?"

"Baran wouldn't let me," she said. "It was his secret, and he wanted it kept. I've told no one until now."

"Not even Cheylan?" he prodded.

"No."

A new thought occurred to him. "Did you tell Cheylan about the Beyah-Olvari?"

"No, he doesn't know about them. That, too, is Baran's secret, not mine." Her eyes asked him to appreciate that for him, and him alone, she was violating her husband's confidences.

Tansen didn't even know what to think, with these eruptions she had suddenly set off inside of him one after another tonight. She was carrying a child who would be a water sorceress, and she was urging him to accept that there would always be such power in Sileria, that they mustn't try to eliminate it completely from their land. She would be a widow within the year, free of that madman she had married... and to whom she had become... Attached? Devoted? Darfire, it was obscene! Meanwhile, Kiloran might know that Baran, their most important ally against him, was dying, and all the old waterlord had to do was wait for that happy event.