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.“Will the Ishien help me?”Tan considered the question.“Possibly.”“Then we go.”“Or they might not.”“Why? Their war is against the Csestriim, as is mine.”“But their path is not yours.”Kaden seemed about to respond, then took a deep breath, held it for a while before exhaling slowly as he gazed over the mountains.Partly, Valyn felt sorry for his brother.He himself had spent enough time trying to corral an unruly Wing that he understood the frustrations of thwarted command.Kaden had it even worse.At least Valyn’s Wing, for all their difficulty, were as young and green as he was.Rampuri Tan had been Kaden’s instructor, his teacher until the destruction of Ashk’lan, and wrangling the monk looked about as easy as hauling a boulder uphill.Tan appeared as indifferent to Kaden’s imperial title as he did to Valyn’s military rank and training.If the older monk was going to be convinced, it would be for reasons Valyn would never fathom.“Then what do you suggest?” Kaden asked, showing impressive restraint.“Fly me to the kenta,” Tan replied.“I will visit the Ishien, learn what they know, while you return to the capital with your brother.We will all meet in Annur.”Kaden said nothing.He stared out over the western peaks so long that eventually even Pyrre propped up her head, squinting at him between slitted lids.Tan also remained motionless, also staring west.No one spoke, but Valyn could feel the tension between the two monks, a silent struggle of wills.“No,” Kaden said at last.Pyrre rolled her eyes and dropped her head back against the rock.Tan said nothing.“I will not be shepherded from place to place, kept safe while others fight my battles,” Kaden said.“The Csestriim killed my father; they tried to kill me and Valyn.If I’m going to fight back, I need what the Ishien know.More, I need to meet them, to forge some sort of alliance.If they are to trust me, first they have to know me.”Tan shook his head.“Trust does not come easily to the men of the order I once served.”Kaden didn’t flinch.“And to you?” he asked, raising his brows.“Do you trust me? Will you take me to the kenta, or do I need to leave you behind while Valyn flies me all over the Bones searching?”The monk’s jaw tightened.“I will take you,” he said finally.“All right,” Valyn said, rolling to his feet.He didn’t like the plan, but at least they were moving, at least they were finally doing something.All the sitting and talking was keeping them pinned down, making them easier to find, to attack.“Where are we going?”“Assare,” Tan replied.Valyn shook his head.“Which is what.a mountain? A river?”“A city.”“Never heard of it.”“It is old,” Tan said.“For a long time it was dangerous.”“And now?”“Now it is dead.”3It was her eyes that would get her killed.Adare understood that well enough as she studied herself in the full-length mirror, safe behind the locked doors of her chambers inside the Crane.She had exchanged her ministerial robes for a servant’s dress of rough wool, traded her silk slippers for serviceable traveling boots, discarded her silver rings and ivory bracelets, scrubbed the faint traces of kohl from her eyelids and ocher from her cheeks, scoured away the delicate perfume she had favored since her thirteenth year, all in the effort to eliminate any trace of Adare, the Malkeenian princess, the Minister of Finance, all in the hope of becoming no one, nothing.Like killing myself, she brooded as she stared at her reflection.And yet, there was no killing the flame in her eyes, a bright fire that shifted and burned even when she stood still.It seemed unfair that she should have to shoulder the burden of Intarra’s gaze without any possibility of reaping the rewards, and yet, despite coming into the world three years prior to her brother, Adare would never sit the Unhewn Throne.It was Kaden’s seat now.It didn’t matter that Kaden was missing, that Kaden was ignorant of imperial politics, that Kaden knew none of the players nor any of the games; it was upon Kaden that the entire empire attended.The fire in his eyes would put him on that massive seat of stone while the flame in hers might see her murdered before the week was out.You’re being unreasonable, Adare chided herself silently.Kaden hadn’t asked for his eyes any more than she had.For all she knew, the conspiracy that ended her father’s life hadn’t stopped there.Stranded among oblivious monks at the end of the earth, Kaden would make a pitifully easy target.By now, he, too, could be dead.A contingent of the Aedolian Guard had departed months earlier, led by Tarik Adiv and Micijah Ut.At the time, the decision had surprised her.“Why not send the Kettral?” she had asked Ran il Tornja.As kenarang, il Tornja was Annur’s highest-ranking general, nominally in charge of both the Kettral and the Aedolian Guard, and as interim regent, he was responsible for finding Kaden, for seeing him returned safely to the throne.Dispatching a group of men by ship seemed a strange choice, especially for a leader who commanded an entire eyrie of massive flying hawks.“A Kettral Wing could be there and back in what.a week and a half?” Adare had pressed.“Flying’s a lot faster than walking.”“It’s also a lot more dangerous,” the kenarang had replied.“Especially for someone who’s never been on a bird.”“More dangerous than trekking through territory north of the Bend? Don’t the Urghul pasture there?”“We’re sending a hundred men, Minister,” he’d said, laying a hand on her shoulder, “all Aedolians, led by the First Shield and Mizran Councillor both.Better to do this thing slowly and to do it right.”It wasn’t the decision Adare would have made, but no one had asked her to make the decision, and at the time, she’d had no idea that il Tornja himself had murdered her father.She, like everyone else, had pinned the death on Uinian IV, the Chief Priest of Intarra, and only months later, when she discovered the truth, did she think back to the conversation, dread curdling in her stomach like rancid oil.Maybe il Tornja hadn’t sent the Kettral after Kaden because he couldn’t.The conspiracy couldn’t extend everywhere [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]