“You’re sadly misinformed, princeling. Rikard builds his military every year, in secret. I doubt the other Children know, but I’m certain the Empress does. And the dams I break are the ones that control the water to the grain he’s trying to grow in secret to feed those armies.”
“But that grain goes to common citizens.”
“No,” Tomaz said, somewhat forcefully. “That grain goes to feeding the soldiers that oppress common citizens and try every year to invade this land.”
The Prince let it drop, but the subject still felt unresolved. How could the man be sure? How could he know he wasn’t hurting innocents?
“That’s quiet an undertaking,” the Prince said, not knowing what else to say.
“Indeed. Do you remember the Haven Dam that broke up in Tyne, the one that was being built for twenty something years?”
“Yes!” the Prince said, astounded. How had they managed to do that? The whole dam had collapsed the day before its completion, which was intended to be a day of celebration.
“Yeah, that wasn’t us. Just bad luck. But I had you going, didn’t I?”
The giant turned around and winked, and the Prince shook his head. Tomaz frowned slightly.
“Is something wrong?”
“No,” the Prince said, though there certainly was. “No, don’t worry, it’s nothing.”
The Prince had somehow managed to forget that this man was an Exile. He’d been going along, treating Tomaz as if he were nothing more than a hunted fugitive, living with other fugitives, trying to escape from a place where they were no longer wanted.
It wasn’t that simple, though. This man wasn’t just a passive victim, he was an active outlaw. He had just admitted to high treason and sabotage, andbeyond that it wasn’t some isolated event, it wasn’t something he’d done to free or protect himself from harm, it was something he’d done as an attack on the Empire. And what was more, he wasn’t the only one. There must be many Rogue pairs, though how many the Prince couldn’t say. How many other things had the Kindred done to the Empire?
And how many of them, really, had the same good intentions as Tomaz?
All of this passed through his mind in the few seconds it took Tomaz to turn back around, and as the big man went back to stirring the stew, a light went on in the back of the Prince’s head, and the Talisman around his neck seared red hot, and then went cold.
He turned his head to the left and knew that he was looking north, toward Roarke.
Because what he felt was the distant glow of the Prince of Oxen, at the head of an army. Marching right toward him.
Chapter Eighteen: Decision
The Prince turned back and stared blankly at the fire.
His brother was coming. Somehow, Ramael was coming straight toward him.
He opened his mouth to say something to Tomaz, to warn him so that he could warn the other Kindred and they could ready a defense… but no words came out. And after a moment or two of sitting there, jaw hanging loose, he closed his mouth and stayed silent.
He went through the rest of the night in a strange kind of mental twilight, not giving any particular thought to what he was doing or saying. He remembered vaguely Tomaz telling him more about Rangers, who scouted the mountain border and made their way up and down the Empire lending help to anyone who found themselves on the wrong side of the law. Through it all he nodded, smiled politely at the right times, and kept silent.
Soon after the stew was finished, they both turned in to sleep. Tomaz went to his corner room and the enormous bed contained therein, while the Prince made do with the couch and the large animal-skin blankets there.
He did not sleep that night. He didn’t even doze. He lay there, feeling the glow of life, twenty, thirty times what a single man should give off, coming from his brother, far off but drawing closer, even in the night. And as the light grew, so did his anger and his resentment.
Anger at who? He didn’t know. The boiling, sickly feeling that had formed in the pit of his stomach like a seed slowly sprouting was directionless. His resentment, though, was reserved for the Kindred. Why should he warn them? He held no loyalty to them. They had successfully defended themselves from over a thousand years of attacks, safe here behind their enchantments. If they were so great, then let themdefend themselves.
And truly, he knew that Davydd would give him up. He knew that Leah and Tomaz, no matter their talk about choices, would too, in the end. He was too valuable to let go. The Kindred needed the information he had about the Empire, the Empress, the Fortress itself, in order to continue and possibly turn the tide of their ongoing war. And they would get it, no matter the cost. He knew they would. People who would risk the starvation of common citizens in order to prevent the growth of an army would care little about his single, unimportant life. And so he felt no guilt about letting them face this threat alone.
As for his brother, let him come. If he tried to take the Prince back to Lucien, back to the capital city and to his Mother, then maybe he would go. Having delivered her the Seventh Principality by infiltrating it as no other member of the Empire had been able to do since the beginning of the war… perhaps that would earn him his freedom and his life. That was certainly something she couldn’t ignore.
But he didn’t want that either, he realized. Not truly. It would be, perhaps, the easiest option. He could solidify it by seeking out the Elders and killing them. It would take very little effort, considering he had the Raven Talisman to help him. As Leah had said, now that he was here, now that he knew where to go, he could destroy everything. And if he did, he had no doubt that he would be welcomed back into the arms of the Empress, the brave, conquering Prince of Ravens. Whatever crime he had committed would be washed away by such a deed. Such a deed that had not, in a thousand years, been achieved by a single man, woman, or Child.
As the night wore on, his mind continued down this path. And what he saw there was red and blood-soaked.
Dawn came, and he had come to no conclusion. He didn’t know to where or what he was attached, or to who he owed his loyalty. If he owed loyalty to anyone. Tomaz and Leah had needed a night to think over what they’d feltabout whether or not to force him before the Council of Elders and reveal himself. Even they put their cause above him.
