Терри Брукс - Tanequil

She nodded. «Come this way.»

She led him into another of the passageways and from there into an unmanned guardroom fronting the outer wall.

«Here?» she asked. He nodded, and she closed the door behind them. «This should serve our needs.»

He walked over to a bench set against the far wall and sat down. «Let me save you some time and effort, Shadea. You have summoned me because you require my help. Your own allies seem to be disappearing rather more rapidly than I think you anticipated in the wake of what's happened. Some won't be returning, I suspect. You are Ard Rhys in name, but your grip on the title is tenuous. Allies are necessary. I would be the one whose support you covet most. Am I right?»

She was angered by his presumptions, but kept her feelings in check. He was right, of course. That was one of his strengths—the ability to analyze a situation quickly and accurately. «Your support would be welcome," she acknowledged.

His sharp features tightened. «Why should I give it to you?»

«I could suggest the obvious—that it would be safer for you to have me as a friend than an enemy.»

His smile was bitter. «You could never be a friend to me, Shadea. You could never be a friend to anyone you viewed as a potential rival. I accept that. I don't want you as a friend, in any case. As well, I don't want you as an enemy. Your successful elimination of Grianne Ohmsford demonstrates sufficient reason for that. Such an impressive piece of work. So unexpected. No one knows how you did it. Gone almost as if she never existed. Care to explain how you managed it?»

She shrugged. «As you said, you don't want me as your enemy.» «So, then, I can have you as neither friend nor enemy. Perhaps there is some middle ground?»

«Perhaps. Why don't we try to find it?» She walked over and sat down beside him, taking away the advantage of height to put them on an equal footing. «I do have need of your help. You have read the situation accurately. I have lost old allies, — I need new ones. The Council follows me for now, but it may shift allegiance when the opportunity arises. I can do nothing to further the Druid cause until the problem is safely eliminated. Think what you want of me, but my goal in all of this is to make the order stronger and more effective. Under Grianne, we were wallowing in discontent and ineffectiveness. That has changed already, even in the few days she has been gone.»

Gerand Cera arched one eyebrow. «How so?» «I have gained the unqualified support of Sen Dunsidan and the Federation. That support goes beyond his openly professed acceptance of my stewardship of the order. A deeper understanding has been forged, one that will eventually give us control over him.»

He nodded slowly. «He will crush the Free–born, and you will have the order stand by and let it happen. But how will you then gain control of him?»

She smiled. «What you need to know is that I do not intend to let things proceed in the disorderly fashion allowed by my predecessor. I intend to take action and to take it now. I will change the course of history, and I will make the Druid order the spearhead for that change.»

«How ambitious of you," he said softly.

«I won't deny it. I am ambitious for both the order and myself. You can join me in this effort or you can continue to oppose me. If you join me, 1 will give you fresh standing in the order, a chance to advance at my side, equal in almost everything.»

He laughed. «Until you no longer have need of me.»

She held his gaze. «Or you of me?»

They stared at each other in silent appraisal, each measuring the other's hidden intent against the possibility of truth contained in the words already spoken. The silence lengthened and Shadea caught a hint of uncertainty in the other's black gaze.

«An alliance, then?» he said.

«A very close alliance. Personal as well as professional.»

He stared at her. «You don't mean for us to become joined inthat way, do you?» he asked softly.

She nodded slowly. «Oh, but I do. Why not? Don't tell me it hasn't crossed your mind. It crosses every man's mind, sooner or later. I see how they look at me. I know how they think. I am offering myself to you. I understand the risk of doing so, of course. But there are always risks. What I seek is an open and obvious alliance that no one in the order will dare to challenge.»

«Well," he said, pursing his thin lips. «I didn't expect this. Do you find me so attractive?»

She shrugged. «Not in the way you might think. Attractive in a different way. Women and men don't always think alike about these things. Accept my offer, and I might even explain it to you one day.»

He stared at her without answering, looking directly into her eyes and searching for what she was hiding. She let him hold her gaze, patient and unflinching. «You could move into my quarters, of course," she said. «You could sleep with me or not, as you choose. What matters is that others see us as a couple. We would be seen as joined in all things, not necessarily by proclamation, but otherwise openly so. 1 am Ard Rhys, but you would be my shadow half. Your word would be mine. We would advance the cause of the order together.»

He let his eyes drop to her body, then rose and walked away and stood looking at the wall. «I will not say I am not tempted. You understand me well enough to know I am. We both crave power in all its forms. Your submission would be immensely satisfying. But where does this lead? How does it end?»

She laughed openly. «Do you need to know in order to be persuaded, Gerand Cera? Aren't you excited by the idea that neither of us can know how this will end, that it is a gamble we must accept? Life is risk! What is the point otherwise?»

He turned back to face her. «What of your other allies? How will they view this change of plans?»

She shrugged. «They will accept it. They haven't any choice. 1 am the one they answer to.» She reached up to touch his cheek. «And now to you, as well, if you accept my offer.»

He shook his head. «You would dispose of me in an instant, discard me with not a second thought.»

«You would do the same with me," she countered. «We do not fool each other in any way about this arrangement. We make use of it until it no longer suits us, and then we see how things stand. It does not necessarily have to end in killing. It can end in any number of other ways. Are you so committed to my death that you cannot imagine any other possibility? Do I appear no different to you than Grianne Ohmsford did?»

He smiled. «You are different in more ways than I can count. I do not mistake you for her. But I do not mistake you for anything different from what you are, either. I would have to watch my back constantly were I to accept your proposal.»

She put her hands on his narrow shoulders and drew him a step closer. «Oh, come now. What would be the purpose of making this offer if all I wanted was to see you dead? There are much less complicated ways to achieve that end. Once I have joined with you openly, it immediately becomes more difficult for me to dispose of you, doesn't it? Besides, what would be the reason? I need you alive and at my side if I am to achieve what I seek. You can see that, can't you?»

His lean features showed nothing, impassive and unrevealing as she pressed herself close and kissed him on the mouth. «Can't you?» Then he was kissing her back, and she knew she had him.

Later that night, when the Druids of Paranor were asleep or at work in quarters kept open for that purpose, the night fallen in a thick black veil through skies so clouded that neither moon nor stars could penetrate, she slipped from her bed to walk the empty corridors and think. She spared only a single glance back at the sleeping and sated Gerand Cera before closing the door on him. Her seduction of her most dangerous enemy had been a success. It had even been enjoyable. She had not lied to him. She found him attractive enough. His menacing look and poisonous mind drew her much the way she thought the Use Witch must have felt drawn to snakes. They were treacherous by instinct and unpredictable by nature and one could not trust what they would do because they frequently did not know themselves. But they were fascinating, as well. She flushed with heat and passion imagining how it would feel to hold one close to her breast and feel its deceptively silky skin sliding against her own. She slipped down the empty corridor outside her room, hugging the shadows as she moved to the stairwell that led upward into the central tower and the parapets that ringed it. She wore her nightgown and nothing more, disdainful of clothing, of armor and weapons, of trappings that hampered and slowed. She feared nothing in this world, so why should she care how she appeared or what she revealed? Convention and conformity were for others. She would be what she liked.