David Farland - The Wyrmling Horde

"It is not your good deeds upon this world that I decry," Thull-turock shouted. "It was what you did upon the shadow world. It is what I suspect that you are destined to become that I decry."

From an old woman at Talon s back came a shout, "Murderer!" From around the camp arose cries of "Fiend!" "Warmonger!" "Monster!"

From the rage on various faces, Talon realized that hundreds of folks had evil memories of the emir, and a full third of the camp had heard rumors of what he d done on Fallion s world.

Talon had lived on both worlds. She felt that she should know what was wrong, but right now, she was baffled.

The emir only gaped in astonishment. His dark-skinned daughter, Siyaddah, came to his side defensively; tears sprang to her eyes, and she stood peering about like a wounded dove, shaken.

"Wait!" Daylan Hammer cried, calling for quiet. He spoke to Thullturock in a soft and reasonable tone. "Does your law allow you to condemn a man for a crime that he has not committed? The emir is innocent. You know that! Look in your heart, and you must find him innocent."

"Until now Tuul Ra has shown no desire to take endowments," Thullturock explained, "and so I have kept my silence. But you must know, I will not grant endowments to him. He must never taste the kiss of the forcible!"

Daylan said in a soft tone, reasonably, "You think that a taste of the forcible will corrupt him?"

"It has corrupted other men. It corrupted his shadow self. As a facilitator, I swore an oath never to grant endowments to a man that I mistrust."

"The emir is made of better stuff than other men, I think," Daylan argued. "Surely you would agree?"

Thull-turock growled, "You know what he did in Indhopal."

Suddenly Talon understood-the Fiend of Indhopal, Raj Ahten. She had never met the man. Her father, Borenson, had helped kill him before she was born. Could the emir be the Raj s shadow self?

It seemed impossible. Raj had been an old man when he d marched against the nations of Rofehavan.

But had he been old, Talon suddenly wondered, or had his forcibles aged him?

He d taken thousands of endowments of brawn, wit, and stamina, of course. And he d taken many endowments of metabolism.

Like any man, he would have aged quickly afterward. If he d taken eight or ten endowments of metabolism, he might have grown old and died within a decade.

Yet the emir seemed young to her-younger than Sir Borenson.

Then, she realized, her father had taken endowments of metabolism, too. Both men had aged preternaturally.

The emir stared at Thull-turock in blank horror. "What did I do on that other world?" he begged. "Tell me. Accuse me."

"That was not the emir," Daylan argued, forestalling the inevitable revelation with a wave of the hand. "It was but a shadow, a creature that this emir could have become."

"And yet," Thull-turock countered, "it seems that there is a pattern to things. In Indhopal, Raj Ahten was the most powerful lord of his time. In this world, the emir is much the same-a man with an unnatural talent for war."

"And so you fear that he will become another Raj Ahten?"

"I cannot help but see the potential," Thull-turock said.

"Don t be afraid to give him endowments," Daylan said. "It is true that the kiss of the forcible corrupts many, but it will not sway the emir."

"So say you," Thull-turock argued. "But Raj Ahten loved the forcible, and craved it like nothing else."

The emir stepped between the men, and raised his hands in surrender. "Thull-turock, if you do not trust me to take endowments, then I will not. But I cannot go back on my oath. I must free Areth Sul Urstone."

"And if you were to try to break into Rugassa without endowments my friend," Daylan said gently, "it would be suicide. Even with your talent, I fear that you could not stand against a Runelord."

Daylan looked to Thull-turock pleadingly. "The emir is unlike his shadow. He is mature, and wise. But Raj Ahten was only a child when first he felt the ecstasy of the forcible." Daylan turned to Thull-turock and asked, "How many children have you heard of who can resist the forcible, once having been subjected to it? It is a heady wine."

Thull-turock mused, "A man who will become a sot will do so no matter how old he is when he begins to drink."

"Perhaps," Daylan said. "But we are not talking about wine here-we are talking about greed, and vanity, and lust for power. That is what destroyed Raj Ahten. But who has seen such vices in the emir?" Daylan reached into his tunic and pulled out a small book with a doeskin binding. "I found this among Fallion s effects. It is the Earth King s own journal. It reveals much about Raj Ahten and how he fell." Daylan raised the book overhead and spoke to the crowd. "Raj Ahten was a young man of fourteen, lusting for power, when he first tasted the fruits of the forcible. He had seen reaver attacks in his own land, reavers slaughtering his friends and father; ancient guardians revealed to him that the reavers were going to rise from the earth in force and that he was among the few who had the means, the strength, and the will to stop them-"

"Much as our emir hopes to save the world from the wyrmling horde," Thull-turock put in.

"But with one difference," Daylan countered, "The Raj was but a child, filled with a child s daydreams. And he was surrounded by sorcerers, flameweavers that pandered to him and aroused his lusts.

"The emir is no child," Daylan continued. "He has held power-held it and lost it again, so that its allure has faded. Now he rejects your honors. He does not ask to be your king. He asks only for the boon of saving the best man among you.

"He has learned the price of leadership. He does not ask to direct these people, rather only that he be able to restore the rightful leader to power.

"How can you argue against that?"

Thull-turock inclined his head, thinking. He took a step away from Daylan Hammer, and peered off into the dim recesses of the cavern while he considered. "Both Raj and the emir were convinced that they were doing what was right when they started down this path. And Fire whispers to them, seeks to claim them. Surely you cannot ask me to grant endowments to someone that you know to be a flameweaver."

"Is he a flameweaver?" Daylan asked. He turned to the emir. "I have never heard such."

The emir could have lied, Talon thought. But he admitted softly, "I have some small skill. I can keep smoke from following me at the fire, and I can twist flames if I want. But I have never sought that power, and in fact I shy away from it. It fills you with a hunger that can never be fulfilled, and so it must be shunned."

That satisfied some, but others remained unconvinced.

"Raj Ahten became the greatest flameweaver his world had ever known," Thull-turock said. "In the end, he lost his humanity."

"But our emir has not gone down that path," Daylan countered. "If I were you, I would rejoice that our Emir Tuul Ra has this gift. If we are to rescue Fallion Orden and Prince Areth Sul Urstone, we will have need of a flameweaver. Vulgnash has consummate skill in the art, and he has endowments to boot. Thus Fallion has proven helpless against him. But perhaps Fallion and the Emir Tuul Ra together…"

Daylan let the thought hang in the air. "But we cannot rely upon their skill alone. We have no way of knowing how many endowments Vulgnash has garnered; we must suspect that he will be one of the wyrmlings greatest champions.

"Thus, the emir may be our only hope. And he will need to have more than just endowments-he must begin to develop Raj Ahten s mastery of Fire."

Talon had been inclined to give the emir a chance, to judge him on his own merits. But suddenly she found her heart thrilling from fear.

"This is madness!" Thull-turock exclaimed. "You would create a new Raj Ahten?"