"We'll find a way," Kian said.
"Such confidence," Navuh said. "It will be your undoing one day. Pride has destroyed greater men than you."
"True, and so has arrogance. I guess we are both at fault."
He'd wanted to strip Navuh of his leverage, to make him understand that his position was weaker than he believed, and he might have accomplished that, at least partially, but Navuh's reaction troubled him.
The guy had been surprised but not devastated. He'd recovered too quickly, shifted too smoothly into that calculating expression that suggested he was far from defeated.
What was Navuh still hiding, and more importantly, how was Kian going to get him to reveal that?
26
NAVUH
Kian's smug expression was grating on Navuh's nerves.
Annani's son thought he'd won something by figuring out where Khiann was hidden, that he'd stripped away Navuh's leverage and left him with nothing to bargain with.
How delightfully wrong he was.
Navuh could continue playing the denial game, keep insisting that Kian's theory was nothing but speculation and conjecture. But what would be the point? He'd already told Annani that he expected to be freed after she recovered her precious truelove mate.
The location was going to be revealed before his release anyway, and there was no point hiding the fact that Kian was right about the five bodies in stasis and the reason Navuh had dug them all out. A god in stasis didn't look any different than an immortal in stasis, and by the time Navuh had decided to dig out Khiann, the god's clothing had turned to dust, so he couldn't tell him from the others by that. He'd had to take all five bodies.
Still, it didn't matter that they knew where Khiann was or that he had four companions, because getting them out without Navuh's help was impossible.
Watching that smugness drain from Kian's face would be immensely satisfying when the guy realized that his so-called win was worthless.
"You're right," Navuh said.
Kian blinked. "I'm sorry?"
"Khiann is in the glass enclosure in my basement." Navuh let the words hang in the air, savoring the flicker of surprise in Kian's eyes. "Congratulations. You've solved the puzzle. Or at least, a small part of it."
"Small? That was your entire bargaining chip."
Navuh smiled. "You should know by now that I always have several layers of protection. Did you really think knowing the location was enough? Did you imagine that you could simply waltz onto my island, break open the enclosure, and carry Khiann home like a trophy?"
"I told you that I'll figure out a way."
"Not without my help." Navuh adjusted his position against the pillows, wincing at the effort required. His arms were still weak, his movements clumsy. But his mind was as sharp as ever, maybe sharper because all he could do was think and plan. "Getting through my army is the easy part. Getting the enclosure opened without destroying your precious Khiann is much more difficult. I built an impenetrable box and booby-trapped it so no one can get in and rob my treasures, and since I don't trust anyone, only I possess the disarmament codes." He tapped histemple. "They are right here, so by saving my life, you saved Khiann's. In retrospect, it was a very wise decision, and your mother should be grateful to you. If you had refused my mate's plea to save me, you would have doomed Khiann."
The satisfaction of watching Kian's expression shift was worth every indignity Navuh had suffered in this place. First came disbelief, then calculation, and finally acceptance.
"You're bluffing," Kian tried.
"Am I?" Navuh spread his hands in a gesture of openness. "Think about it. I've had millennia to prepare for every contingency. Would I really leave my most valuable asset unprotected? Would I put it behind glass where everyone in my mansion could see it, without guaranteeing that no one but me could open it? Would I store the one thing that could guarantee my freedom in a glass box that anyone could smash open?"
Kian was silent for a long moment. "What kind of traps did you install?"
"The kind that will destroy everything inside the enclosure if triggered. The glass is specially designed. If you try to cut through it, shatter it, or breach it in any way without entering the codes first, the failsafe activates." Navuh paused, letting the implications sink in. "Khiann and his companions will perish for good. Their fragile bones will not survive and will be reduced to dust."
"I don't believe you."
"You don't have to believe me. But can you afford to take the risk?" Navuh tilted his head, studying Kian's face. "Will your mother allow you to take it? After five thousand years of mourning her truelove mate, then learning that he might stillbe alive and recoverable, would she gamble his existence on the chance that I'm lying?"
The muscles in Kian's face tightened almost imperceptibly. He was good at hiding his reactions, better than most, but not as good as he thought he was.
