Again that pause. And I wondered, just briefly if Goap really was doing us a favor. If he was trying, maybe against his own nature, to help us against his father.
Demons had surprised me before. I didn’t see why Goap couldn’t have good intentions.
“Perhaps I am not as you remember either, big brother,” Goap said. “You have been gone for a very long time.”
“Did you send the weapons here because you are offering to join us?” I asked. “In the fight against your father?”
Both brothers wore identical looks of surprise.
Goap shook his head slightly. “Is she always this naive?”
“You’d be surprised at her soul,” Bathin said. I didn’t know if that was a compliment or an insult.
“Why else would you be here with a king killer ax?” I pressed. “It kills kings.”
“Bunny Kisses,” Goap corrected. His gaze was locked on Bathin, as if willing him to understand. “I brought Bunny Kisses.”
Bathin grunted, and bent to pick up the axe.
It was a short-handled battle ax with a wide, curved edge so bright, it looked like a scrap of the moon had been hammered from toe to heel. The rest of the metal was covered in intricate carvings, spells that tricked and misled the eye.
I could feel the power radiating from it. A heat. A promise. A hollowness that hungered.
“If you kill Father, the throne will be yours,” Goap said. Then, in a rush: “I would rather you seated there than him.”
Bathin shifted his grip on the ax. “I will never take that throne. This is my home.”
Goap nodded. “Then the throne will fall to me. Would you not rather I take up the kingdom than leave it in his hands? Think of all the—”
“Yes,” Bathin said simply.
That seemed to catch Goap off guard. “Yes?” he croaked.
Bathin shrugged. “Yes, brother. I’d rather see you on the throne.”
“You don’t…you wouldn’t fight me for it?”
“This is my home,” Bathin said again. “If you want the throne, you can fight for it.”
“I can’t.” Goap sighed. “You know I can’t kill him directly. I can’t. It must be you. The first spawned. Only the first spawnedcankill him.”
“You’ve been reading the prophecies again. Prophecies very rarely come true.”
“Maybe so. But I don’t want to risk it. Only a fool would try to bring down the king of demons with a prophecy stating it is the first spawn alone who can take his head. I need…” he cleared his throat. “I need you to fight him.”
“You need me to kill him.”
“That too.”
“A suspicious demon might think you’re the one trying to start the war,” Bathin mused.
“You know me, brother.”
“I did. Once. Now?” Bathin shook his head. “A suspicious demon might pick up Feather Duster and take care of ever having a relative swing an ax at his head again.”
Goap rolled his eyes. “You don’t frighten me. We both know if we’d wanted each other dead, it would have happened years ago.”
“On the spawning grounds,” Bathin said.
