DAVID COE - Seeds of Betrayal

Three words. “It is done.”

They could have meant anything, which of course was the point. Only she would know that “It is done” actually meant “Your gold has bought the blood of another Qirsi.” Only she would understand that the traitor had died, simply because she wanted him dead. Only she would see this message for what it was a proclamation of war Just as the loosing of a single arrow high over a battle plain signaled the commencement of combat, so the death of this one man declared her intent to oppose the conspiracy, no matter the cost Terror and exhilaration warred within her, one gaining supremacy over the other, only to retreat in turn. Even with Fetnalla at her side, she knew that she could not stand against a movement that seemed to grow more vast by the day Yet this first skirmish was theirs, and the taste of their success served only to make her hunger for more.

That she had taken the life of a Qirsi gave her pause. Her people would suffer greatly before this war was over. With each new betrayal, it became more likely that they would never again be trusted by the nobles of the Forelands. More to the point, it had been nine centuries since Carthach’s betrayal, and still the Qirsi battled among themselves over what the traitor had done This war she had taken it upon herself to wage would only deepen an age-old rift She tried to tell herself that this couldn’t be helped, that by striking at the Eandi courts, the conspiracy had made itself the enemy of all those who were loyal to the realms, no matter the color of their eyes. But she was a gleaner, and though she had glimpsed only vague images of what the future might hold for the Qirsi, she quailed at what she saw.

“It is done.”

Only Evanthya could have understood so much from the assassin’s simple words Still, as she stood there in the brilliant sunlight, holding this token of her triumph, even she couldn’t explain why her eyes stung with tears for the man she had killed.