David Coe - Bonds of Vengeance

“What do you want?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“To talk. It will only take a moment.”

She hesitated, then turned away, stepping farther into her chamber but leaving the door open. An invitation.

He closed the door, watching her pace.

“You don’t look well,” she said. “Are you sleeping?”

“I’m well enough.”

She shrugged, said nothing.

“You were right about him, weren’t you?”

Nitara halted, stared at him. “What do you mean?” she asked, though clearly she already knew.

“Dusaan. He is the Weaver, isn’t he?”

“I thought you said I was a fool for even thinking it.”

“I did. I was wrong.”

“No, you weren’t. I was a fool. He’s just another Qirsi. That’s all.”

“I don’t believe you, Nitara. He leads the movement, and it seems he’s just convinced the emperor to begin the invasion of Eibithar early.”

“What? How do you know this?”

“Stavel told me. Apparently Dusaan presented it to the emperor as counsel recommended by all of us.”

“Then it’s begun,” she whispered.

“So it would seem. We’re about to go to war, and Dusaan is poised to make himself ruler of all the Forelands.”

“I already told you. He’s not-”

“Yes, I know.” Kayiv smiled, though his chest ached. There could be no question as to her loyalty to the high chancellor. “He’s just another Qirsi.” He walked to the door, pulled it open. “I’m sorry to have disturbed you.”

He thought briefly about returning to his chamber, but he suddenly felt the need to leave the castle. Perhaps a walk in the city marketplace would do him good.

But Kayiv knew better. Dusaan was the Weaver, the man who would lead the Forelands if the Qirsi movement succeeded. And though the minister no longer had any doubts as to the truth in all the high chancellor had told him about the movement, he still couldn’t bring himself to trust the man. Quite the opposite. He was more afraid of him now than ever.

Yserne, Sanbira

For the better part of a turn in Castle Yserne, home of Sanbira’s queen Olesya centered on the death of Kreazur jal Sylbe, Diani’s first minister. After some initial confusion, there could no longer be any doubt as to the meaning of his murder. He had been found in a part of Yserne city known for attracting thieves and assassins. There had been an empty pouch beside him and two stray gold pieces under his shattered body. And though many of the nobles gathered in Castle Yserne were still reluctant to speak of the matter, most now believed that he had gone to the northwest corner of the city in search of a new blade to hire with his Qirsi gold. Perhaps he intended to have Diani killed, hoping to succeed where he had failed before. Or maybe he had some other victim in mind, another duchess, or, Ean forbid, the queen. Whatever his purpose, the gods had chosen to mete out their own justice. Some speculated that he had offered too little gold to the men he wished to hire, or had sought to impose conditions that weren’t to their liking. In either case, they took exception and, it seemed, threw him from the roof of one of the many ramshackle buildings lining the lane where he was found.

Many of the duchesses had expressed their sympathy to Diani, as if she had lost a dear friend. Even the dukes of Brugaosa and Norinde offered condolences for her loss, and seemed sincere in doing so. Diani, however, felt no grief. Her mother would have been aggrieved, she knew, just as was her father. Kreazur, Sertio kept reminding his daughter, had served House Curlinte for nine years and whatever he had become, he had once been a loyal counselor to the old duchess. But as far as Diani was concerned, the first minister’s betrayal negated all that he had done for her mother. No, she felt no sadness at his death. None at all. What she felt was vindication.

Her father had scolded her for imprisoning the first minister and her other Qirsi, telling her that she had allowed her fears to cloud her judgment, as if she were still a child. The queen had done much the same, seeming to imply that she had been guided by her need for vengeance and her inexperience with the courts. Kreazur himself had tried to tell her that he had earned better treatment by serving the old duchess for so many years, as if he sought to use her guilt, and her grief at losing her mother, to win his freedom. Eventually Diani had given in to all of them. Now she knew-they all knew-that she had been right from the beginning.

The white-hairs could not be trusted. If Kreazur was a traitor, how many other ministers might be as well? Olesya began to meet with her duchesses and dukes in closed audiences, with none of the Qirsi ministers present. Even Abeni ja Krenta, the queen’s own archminister, was excluded from these discussions, for in the wake of Kreazur’s death, even the most powerful Qirsi were suspect in the eyes of Sanbira’s Eandi nobles.

Much else had changed as well. When Edamo of Brugaosa and Alao of Norinde first arrived in Yserne they were unwilling to concede that the conspiracy was behind the assassination attempts against Diani. Both men had been loath to cede any more authority to the Matriarchy, and since at the time Diani could offer no proof of Qirsi involvement in the attacks, the dukes were able to convince the other nobles that it was too early to do so.

Now, though, with Kreazur dead and his treachery revealed, there could be no denying that the conspiracy had struck at the realm. It seemed obvious to Diani that the dukes still would have preferred to find some other way to meet the Qirsi threat, but with the other houses solidly behind the queen, they had little choice but to acquiesce. Within only a day or two of the first minister’s death, the nobles gave Olesya leave to conscript more men, to raise the levies necessary for waging a war, and to forge alliances with any realm that would join Sanbira in its fight against this so-called movement.

Diani, who remained the youngest leader of any of Sanbira’s houses, and the least experienced, had seen her standing in the realm altered as well. Where she had once been made to feel ashamed of her decision to imprison all of Castle Curlinte’s Qirsi, she was now complimented for it. A turn before, Edamo had made her feel a fool for arguing so forcefully that Sanbira should be preparing for war with the renegade sorcerers. Now every noble in the land spoke as she had. Once there might have been some shame in leading the house that harbored Sanbira’s first known traitor. But by leading the call for action against the conspiracy, even in the face of opposition from other nobles, she had turned Curlinte’s disgrace into a triumph. Indeed, the assassination attempt itself had only added to her newfound stature. As word spread of all that had happened that day on the Curlinte coast-of the injuries she had suffered, of the three arrows that had pierced her flesh, and of her desperate escape and ride back to the castle-she became a hero of sorts. Soldiers from other houses cheered when they caught sight of her. In their audiences with Olesya, duchesses who had ruled their houses for years deferred to her, though she had only ruled Curlinte for a few turns. Even the queen was not immune, turning to Diani for counsel when, only a short time before, she would have gone first to Rashel of Trescarri of Ary of Kinsarta.

Curlinte’s standing in the realm hadn’t reached such levels since the end of the Curlinte Dynasty more than five hundred years before, and Diani had every intention of taking advantage of her influence. She didn’t covet power; she remained loyal to the queen and had no desire to rule the land herself. But she was determined that no other houses in Sanbira would suffer as she had at the hands of white-haired traitors. She didn’t expect Olesya to order the imprisonment of all the Qirsi in the realm, or even of all the ministers currently in Castle Yserne. The queen lacked the will to go so far, and even had she not, the duchess realized now that such an approach carried risks as well. Rather, Diani wished to see the Qirsi remain free, but under constant watch from afar, so that when the next traitor tried to strike at the realm, the nobles would be ready. At Diani’s urging, Olesya had sent spies into the city to watch the Qirsi taverns and the marketplace. They were instructed to look not only for Qirsi who strayed from the castle at odd hours but also for any white-hairs, including the queen’s ministers and healers, who spent too freely at the peddler’s stalls or tavern bars.