The Skull Throne. Peter Brett V.

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      Arlen wanted to argue, but there was little he could say. It was a fair point.

      ‘Inevera’s prophecies are vague, and often not what they seem,’ Jardir went on. ‘I spent years pondering her words. Kill, she had said, but the symbol on her dice had other meanings. Death, rebirth, conversion. I tried to convert you to the Evejah, or find you a bride and tie you to Krasia, in hope that if you ceased to be a chin and were reborn as an Evejan, it would fulfill the prophecy and allow me to spare you.’

      Almost every man Arlen knew in Krasia tried to find him a bride at some point, but none so hard as Jardir. He never would have guessed it was to save his life, but there was no lie in Jardir’s aura.

      ‘Reckon it came true after a fashion,’ Arlen said. ‘Part of me died that night, and was reborn out on the dunes. Sure as the sun rises.’

      ‘When you first presented the spear, I knew it for what it was,’ Jardir said. ‘I sensed its power and had to force down my desire to take it from you then and there.’

      Arlen’s lip curled, showing a hint of teeth. ‘But you were too much a coward. Instead you conspired and lured me into a trap, letting your men and a demon pit do the dirty work for you.’

      Jardir’s aura flared, a mix of guilt and anger. ‘Inevera too told me to kill you and take the spear. She offered to poison your tea if I did not wish to sully my hands. She would have denied you a warrior’s death.’

      Arlen spat. ‘As if I give a demon’s piss. Betrayal’s betrayal, Ahmann.’

      ‘You do,’ Jardir said. ‘You may think Heaven a lie, but if you were given to choose your death, you would face it with a spear in your hand.’

      ‘Didn’t have a spear when death came for me, Ahmann. You took it. All I had were needles and ink.’

      ‘I fought for you,’ Jardir said, not rising to the bait. ‘Inevera’s dice have ruled my life since I was twelve years old. Never before or since have I so defied them, or her. Not even over Leesha Paper. Had Inevera not proven so … formidable, I would have hurt her when my arguments failed. I left for the Maze determined. I would not kill my brother. I would not rob him.’

      Arlen tried to read the emotions in Jardir’s aura, but they were too complex, even for him. This was something Jardir had wrestled with for years, and still not come to terms with. It did little to ease his sense of betrayal, but there was more, and Arlen wanted to hear it.

      ‘What changed?’ he said.

      ‘I remembered your words,’ Jardir said. ‘I watched from the wall as you led the Sharum to clear the Maze, the Spear of Kaji shining bright as the sun in your hands. They shouted your name, and I knew then they would follow you. The warriors would make you Shar’Dama Ka, and charge Nie’s abyss if you asked it.’

      ‘Afraid I’d take your job?’ Arlen asked. ‘Never wanted it.’

      Jardir shook his head. ‘I did not care about my job, Par’chin. I cared about my people. And yours. Every man, woman, and child on Ala. For they would all follow you once they saw the alagai bleed. I saw it in my mind’s eye, and it was glorious.’

      ‘Then what, Ahmann?’ Arlen asked, losing patience. ‘What in the Core happened?’

      ‘I told you, Par’chin,’ Jardir said. ‘I remembered your words. There is no Heaven, you said. And I thought to myself, Without hope of Heaven, what reason would you have to remain righteous when all the world bowed to you? Without being humble before the Creator, what man could be trusted with such power? Nie corrupts what She cannot destroy, and it is only in our submission to Everam that we can resist Her whispers and lies.’

      Arlen gaped at him. The truth of the words was written on Jardir’s aura, but his mind boggled at the thought. ‘I embody everything you hold dear, willing to fight and die in the First War, but you’d betray me because I do it for humanity, and not some figment in the sky?’

      Jardir clenched a fist. ‘I warn you, Par’chin …’

      ‘Corespawn your warnings!’ Arlen brought his fist down, the limb still thrumming with power. The table exploded with the blow, collapsing in a spray of splinters. Jardir leapt back from the broken boards and shrapnel, coming down in a sharusahk stance.

      Arlen knew better than to attempt to grapple. Jardir was more than his match at hand-fighting. He’d fought dama before, and been lucky to escape with his life. Jardir had studied for years with the clerics, learning their secrets. Even now, when Arlen was faster and stronger than anyone alive, Jardir could take him like a boy to the woodshed. Much as Arlen wanted to meet Jardir on even terms, there was nothing to be gained, and everything to lose.

      Jardir’s superior sharusahk skill was irrelevant in any event. His understanding and control over his magic was rudimentary at best, self-taught and unpractised. It would be some time before he was in full control of his abilities, and even then he could not match with hora relics what Arlen, who had made magic a part of him, could do. If he wanted to kill Jardir, he could.

      And doom them all. Arlen might be able to make the crown work without Jardir, but there wasn’t much chance he could escape Anoch Sun alive without help, and he’d never make it to the mind court alone. The Core would call to him, its song more insistent the closer he drew.

      Nie corrupts what she cannot destroy. Words of faith, but there was wisdom in them all the same. Every child had heard the proverb in the Canon that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The Core offered absolute power, but Arlen dare not touch it. He would lose himself, absorbed and burnt away like a match thrown into a Solstice bonfire.

      He breathed deeply to calm himself before he did something rash. Jardir kept his guard up, but his aura showed he had no desire to fight. They both knew what was at stake.

      ‘I made a promise to you that night as I left you on the dunes, Par’chin,’ Jardir said. ‘I threw you a waterskin and promised I would find you in the afterlife, and if I had not kept true and made the Ala a better place, we would have a reckoning.’

      ‘Well it’s come early,’ Arlen said. ‘Hope you’re ready for it.’

      Jardir looked at the sky as they exited the tower, trying to deduce where they were from the position of the stars. South and west of Everam’s Bounty, but that told him little. Millions of untamed acres lay between the great city and the desert flats. He might manage to find his way back on his own, but Everam only knew how long it would take.

      He didn’t need to ask the Par’chin his purpose in leading them from the tower. It was written clearly on his aura, mirrored in Jardir’s own. The hope that fighting side by side against the alagai, as they had done so many times before, could begin to eat away at the anger and mistrust that lay between them still.

      Unity is worth any price, the Evejah said. Kaji had called it the key to Sharak Ka. If he and the Par’chin could find unity of purpose, then they stood a chance.

      If not …

      Jardir breathed deep of the night air. It was fitting. All men are brothers СКАЧАТЬ