“There is power in Shadow. Is that not what you yourself discovered? Did you not discover itfirst?”
Fire lanced out from his palms. Sedarias stood at the heart of its trajectory.
“If I had succeeded in killing you, we would not be here now. I was promised the line if I broke my word to you.”
“Mother?”
“Mother.”
She nodded. “You understand that she expected you to die.”
“Yes. Her expectations were irrelevant. If you were dead, I would have proved myself. Because if you were dead, it would mean that you had been foolish enough, weak enough, to trust.”
If Kaylin had not been in an entirely different space, she would have shouted in rage.
“Youareshouting,” Mandoran pointed out. “She just can’t hear you.”
“My apologies, then, for not being weak enough. For never being weak enough. This is where you have led Mellarionne. And now it will have a leader who might—just might—be able to pull the house back from the brink of ruin. The Consortis here. And the High Lord will know.”
She raised her sword. From the left and right, two of the cohort came in: Annarion and Eddorian. And Sedarias stepped forward as white fire did as much damage as light might have. “Do you know what I was promised?”
“The same.”
“The same, brother mine. If you died, I would be guaranteed the house. Do you know why I didn’t try to kill you first? Do you honestly think that it was weakness?”
“It was.”
“No. It was because the house was already mine. I wanted it to be different. I didn’t agree with our mother. But it was already mine. This was the war she wanted. This was the fight she wanted. She wanted none of us to change anything. In the end, she ruled you.”
“She isdead.”
“Yes. The wars killed her. And had they not, one of us would have killed her instead. No,” she amended as her brother drew his own sword and the light dimmed, the gem that shed it cracking so loudly it sounded like lightning, “I would have killed her. You would have served, in your fashion, for all your eternity.”
She drove her sword forward.
Coravante barely attempted to parry.
“You are like her,” he said, his voice breaking on syllables, and on Sedarias. “You are exactly like her.”
“I would almost spare you so that you might come to realize just how wrong you are.”
He nodded. Just that. He had no more words to offer.
“I think Sedarias has managed to kill her brother.” Mandoran’s expression was grave; there was no triumph in it.
Kaylin blinked and fled Severn’s vision. “She said he’d tried to kill her before. I can’t remember how often.”
“I think this would be the fifth time,” Terrano said. “But it’s only five because we were locked away in Alsanis for so long he didn’t have other opportunities.”
“Her sister also tried to kill her.”
“If it makes you feel any better, her sister tried to kill her brother, as well. And survived one attempt on her brother’s part, that we know of.”
“She wasworking for him.”
“Yes. Apparently she decided it was better to join than to die.”
And Sedarias hadn’t.
