Including her.
Jes Weisen was right. Tavo had by now gone beyond her help—and probably anyone else’s. The boy she had known was dead and gone, and in his place was this killing machine that might do anything if provoked.
Yet even as she admitted all this, she knew she was still going after him. She had to try. She would never be able to live with herself if she didn’t.
Jes Weisen climbed to her feet. “I’ve told you everything I know, and now I have to be going. I only came back because I saw you walking into Backing Fell and knew what you would be up against. Those people are scared out of their wits. They don’t understand someone like your brother, and they think you might turn out to be the same. So better to drive you away than to let you stay and take a chance.”
“I only wanted answers,” Tarsha told her. “I just wanted to find out what happened to my family. It was never my intention to stay.”
“Best you get going, then. Like me. I’m not staying here any longer, either, and I might not come back at all. But take heed to what I said about your brother. Don’t go doing something foolish. That boy is insane. A demon.”
She reached down to touch Tarsha’s cheek, then turned and walked away. She was through the trees and gone in moments, but Tarsha continued to stare after her, lost in thought. Everything she had hoped to accomplish by coming back was destroyed as completely as her home and parents. Everything about her former life was gone. Except for her brother.
She had to find him.
She stood up. It was nearing midday. There were still six or seven hours of light remaining in which she could safely fly.
She started for her airship.
SEVEN
On the third day after departing the Skaar camp, Kol’Dre was in Arishaig, approaching the offices of the members of the Coalition Council for an unscheduled meeting with the Prime Minister of the Federation. It was well past noon, and he walked until he found the building he wanted and then entered, navigating his way along a tangle of hallways that wound through its interior. He was stopped repeatedly at checkpoints, but he had purloined the necessary passes from the admission offices at the building entrance. A meeting now, even on such short notice, would have been impossible. Besides, a surprise appearance would better achieve his purpose.
Ajin had been quite clear about what she wanted.
“Speak to Ketter Vause personally. Tell him we have taken Paranor and destroyed the Druids. Ask him to consider supporting our efforts to make a home for our people north of the Mermidon, in land we already hold. Advise him that he may choose to refuse us, but in that case we would have to consider approaching the Elves with the same offer and they might be more willing to accommodate us.”
She paused meaningfully. “Do whatever you think necessary to persuade him, Kol. Make sure he understands that it would be in his best interests to accept our offer.”
Kol had nodded his understanding. “But even if he agrees, he will seek to betray us. He is that sort of man.”
“Of course he is. And I am well aware of what he will do. I am counting on it, in fact.”
“Then what is the point…?”
She put a finger to his lips. “It is not an alliance with the Federation I am seeking. It is an alliance with the Elves. Now go, and come back again safe.”
Her hand came to rest on his shoulder, and her fingers squeezed to emphasize the bond between them. In that moment, he would have done anything for her.
Sending him into such danger demonstrated once again the degree of confidence she had in him. Others might have agreed to take the risk for her, but none had the experience or skill to achieve the desired results. When it came to assignments where death was only a heartbeat away, Kol’Dre was the best choice by far.
He smiled. He was an odd sort of man, and he recognized this about himself. The Skaar were a warlike people, and to survive as one of them you had to have a certain recklessness inside you. But for Kol’Dre, recklessness was a step away from carelessness. No, what he found invigorating and addictive was the excitement that came from taking highly calculated risks. He liked knowing he could do things no one else could ever hope to do—and not so much things of a physical nature as things that required a certain mental superiority and courage. He knew he was smart—smarter than most. And testing the limits of that belief provided reaffirmation. Giving himself challenges made life worthwhile. Kol’Dre had never valued staying alive more than he had valued accomplishment.
He thought again of Ajin, and he wondered if perhaps she shared these feelings. Certainly she was willing to put herself at the forefront of every incursion she led—never hanging back, never staying safe, always showing that whatever she asked of others she was willing to do herself. He admired her for this. Her father, Cor d’Amphere, was nothing like her. He was a king who ruled from his throne and not from the head of his armies. He was smart enough, and decisive when it was needed, but his courage was buttressed by his position of power and did not come from within. Stripped of his title, he would have been a very ordinary man.
Admittedly, it was dangerous even to think like this, but Kol’Dre was not afraid to give free rein to his thoughts. He was never one to fall into line with everyone else—never one to play things safe.
It would be the same this time. Here, in Arishaig, he would do what no one else could. He would do what Ajin had asked of him and walk into the lion’s den, emerging unscathed. He would win the promise of an alliance, false though he knew it would be, and he would set the stage for whatever deeper plan Ajin was in the process of enacting. It didn’t take a genius to see that she was calculating something that would either undermine or negate the power of the Federation. And his aid in bringing this about would open doors that were otherwise closed to him. It would elevate his stature in a way that nothing else could.
It would bring him one step closer to Ajin.
And perhaps even to the throne itself.
An ambition he would never dare voice aloud.
It was dim and institutional within the Federation office complex—a typical administrative warren housing functionaries and their directors. But he was patient and pleasant to everyone he met, doing nothing to suggest he was anything other than what he pretended to be, a visitor on state business. He took note of the fact that there were sentries everywhere. Apparently assassination attempts against Federation Ministers were not unfamiliar. Kol’Dre smiled inwardly. Had he wished any of these people dead, they would have breathed their last before their protectors knew what was happening.
When he finally reached the offices of the Prime Minister—a decided improvement in appearance over everything that had come before—he found himself in a sumptuous waiting room in the company of a dozen other visitors and four heavily armed guards. The guards stood to one side, watching closely but saying nothing. It was late in the day—the time reserved for personal requests and favors from members of the general public who had already passed through enough bureaucracy to gain admittance. Two hours was all that was allotted. You waited your turn, and if your turn didn’t come within those two hours, you had to come back another day.