My father dimmed the lamps and made sure the curtains were drawn, then smiled and clasped Paulo's hand. "Gerick doesn't know you've been coming regularly to see me, Paulo. Though it's not your usual time. I thought you were off in Avonar."
"Not a regular visit tonight, my lord." He pushed my hand off his shoulder. "And it wasn't just the empty bed, though if you'd been whacked on the head again by whoever is the mysterious somebody you won't talk about, you might not take it so ill I'd taken note of it." He pulled a folded paper from his shirt and gave it to my father. "I've brought this from Prince Ven'Dar. He said it was important enough to send me right back with it before I'd so much as had a biscuit. That Je'Reint was with him"—Paulo always referred to him as that Je'Reint —"and he was worried as well."
While my father sat in his chair to read the letter, Paulo started casting his eyes about the place in a way no one who knew him could mistake.
"There's half a chicken and some plums left from dinner," I said, "and from the generosity of my heart, I'll sacrifice the last of the wine for you." I handed him my glass, which he drained in one swallow.
"Nub like you got no business drinking too much wine anyways," he said. "Lucky I grabbed a pie at Gaelie. Just need something to tuck around the edges."
"So you've been coming up here while I was gone?" He hadn't mentioned that last time we'd talked. What else had I missed in my distraction with D'Sanya?
"No use staying around Avonar with that Je'Reint in and out of the house every hour of every day. And Master Karon and I . . . we've had some business to see to. He seemed to think no one would notice me coming in or out of here if I was careful."
I waited for him to continue, but clearly no other explanation of their "business" was forthcoming. The chicken and fruit were gone almost as quickly as the wine, and Paulo had stretched out on the floor in front of the fire with his hands under his head and dozed off before my father looked up from the letter. I could tell from my father's troubled expression and his anxious glances at me that I wasn't going to like what he was about to say.
"So what is it? Has Je'Reint decided to reveal all to the Lady? Or perhaps set the Preceptors on me?"
"Another marshaled band of Zhid attacked a town in Astolle Vale," he said, folding the letter and tossing it on the table. "And they've had three independent reports of a massive force in the north. Reliable witnesses. Veterans of the war, who knew what they saw."
My dinner suddenly sat very heavily. "And Ven'Dar wants me to tell him how it's being done."
"Gerick . . ." He rubbed the tips of his fingers over his brow. "The Preceptors are at the end of their patience. They claim they need D'Sanya's power, her own formidable talents joined with the Heir's power that is hers by right, to put a stop to the Zhid rising, and so they're demanding that Ven'Dar abdicate in favor of the Lady D'Sanya now before his time is up."
"He mustn't do that! Not yet. She has secrets. And she isn't ready, even if everything is . . . honest . . . with her. She needs time. I need time. . . ." My words limped off into silence.
My father looked at me thoughtfully, closer than I wished, and I made some halfhearted attempt to put the remnants of Paulo's supper to rights, stacking greasy plates and bowls in the basket we left out for the attendant to take away. I had to explain.
"She wants to get the other hospice built. She's driven to help all these people and hasn't been interested in anything that might slow that down. When the time comes, she won't hesitate to take D'Arnath's chair. She believes it's her responsibility, but just now it's more important to her to . . . get her life in order … to feel right about it . . . find her place . . ." What had she meant in her message about foregoing her destiny?
"What does she say about the raids?"
"She doesn't like to talk about them. She wants to believe the Lords are defeated. She hated them . . . still hates them. She trusts Ven'Dar and Je'Reint."
"And if she were to be convinced that Ven'Dar is not capable of handling the Zhid? What would she do? Where would she start?"
"She doesn't like to run things by herself—detests having to choose between different ways of doing things. It's why she had so much trouble with the Builders in Maroth. One Builder would tell her one thing that made sense, and she'd do it, and then another Builder would tell her another thing. And that made sense, too. But she wasn't even sure enough of her decision to tell the first one she'd changed her mind. She understands this about herself, though, so I believe she'd get people to help her . . . like Ven'Dar and the Preceptors. Take their advice. But she believes .. . she is . . . D'Arnath's daughter, and if she decides she must take his place, she won't shrink from it. That's what I think. But I can't say for sure, of course, or we'd be finished here. I don't know." Could she forgo duty for anyone … for me?
My father nodded and picked up the letter again. "Ven'Dar's best minds, those who've studied the Zhid for their entire lifetimes, cannot explain these attacks. No one can find the villains. Fear is growing. Trade in the remote Vales and the new settlements is grinding to a halt. The recovery and resettlement of the Wastes is paralyzed. If you could come up with anything to help them understand it, you could give the Lady and Ven'Dar—and us—more time."
Time wasn't going to solve anything. Only truth. I had begun to need certainty as I had never needed it my life. "All right. I'll try."
"I know what I'm asking of you, and if there were any other way . . ."
"I said I'll manage."
I didn't dawdle. It wouldn't do to think too much. I set the basket outside the courtyard door, a signal for the attendant not to intrude, locked both sets of doors, and then I shook Paulo, a mug of hot saffria from the pot on the sideboard in hand. "Come on, I need you awake. Drink this."
"What's wrong?" he said, after the saffria and my prodding had him alert again.
"I'm going to try to remember some things. It will be hard, and I'll have to . . . concentrate … on some bad times."
He sat up straighter, no more traces of sleep. "Zhev'Na, then."
"I need you to make sure I don't take too long about it—no more than an hour—and that I'm … all right. . . myself . . . when I get back. It might take both of you. Father, you'll need to look me in the eye and command me to speak my name"—Paulo's eyes widened when I stuffed the handle of the poker in his hand—"and you make sure I answer the right thing. I mean it. Be sure. Don't let me see you before you do it, and don't hold back."
Paulo exhaled sharply as if he had stopped just short of speaking. I felt their dismay. But I didn't want to see it on their faces or give them any opening to argue. So I kept my eyes averted as I propped several big cushions beside the brick hearth step and sat against them on the floor, positioned so the two of them could watch my face. I had to trust them.
I had come to need answers as much as Ven'Dar did. It wasn't any good telling myself I didn't care about Dar'Nethi history past or future. What I had just read and heard that afternoon from my father confirmed everything I had felt since coming to Avonar. I wanted to find something to explain why the world felt wrong and what was happening in the Wastes . . . something that had nothing to do with D'Sanya or me. And I had to find out the truth about her. You will not escape the destiny we designed for you. You are our instrument. . . Had Lord Ziddari said those things to her as well?
And so, on that quiet evening in my father's pleasant sitting room, I closed my eyes and ever so slightly relaxed the guards I had erected against the bitter record of the time I had spent as Dieste the Destroyer, the Fourth Lord of Zhev'Na. Only an hour had passed from the time I had stepped into the Great Oculus, the man-high brass ring that was the focus of the Lords' power, spinning its web of light and shadow in the depths of their fortress, until I had stepped out of it again, my eyes burned away, my soul withered, my mind and being one with the Lords. Scarcely more than a child, in one short hour I had become very old in the ways of evil.