“Sister,” he said, tragedy in his eyes and in his thoughts, but I shook my head before he could go on.
“Dallan, you know what difficulty I had living in this world,” I said, trying to explain it to him as I’d worked it out for myself. “His beliefs have never truly been mine, and a thing such as this was bound to occur at some time if not this one. Never have I been able to put his welfare and happiness after any other thing, yet honor and duty have always stood first in his thoughts. I do not fault him for this for he is l’lenda-yet I am not, nor do I wish to be. I am done with him now, and oddly relieved to have it so.”
He stared at me with such pain that I was tempted to soothe it down for him, but that was the sort of temptation I had to learn to resist. There’s very little separating the urge to help and the urge to “change just a little,” and that was a fork in the road I had no intentions of traveling. If people left me alone I would do the same for them, and then maybe the road would get easier.
Dallan was busy trying to accept what I’d told him, when another knock came at the door. This one was a mere formality, however, because Dallan hadn’t closed the door when he’d come in; most of the small crowd was already in the room, and the knock had just been to get my attention.
“We give you greetings for a new day, Terril,” Relgon said for all of them, her mind considerably calmer than those of Deegor and Leelan. Eight of our original group of ten were there, and they all seemed agitated but determined.
“And I give you the same, Relgon,” I answered politely, then gestured at the multitude of cushions. “Will you not come in and join me?”
They all perked up at the unexpected invitation, possibly having anticipated being thrown out the way my assistants had been earlier, and immediately began coming farther into the room. All of them felt better-with the single exception of Leelan, who had very quickly noticed Dallan’s presence there. I had the feeling she was trying to decide just how long he’d been there, but once they were all settled on the floor fur, Relgon gave her no time to even consider asking.
“We have seen to a number of things for you, Terril,” the older woman said at once, her mind faintly amused with the knowledge of what Leelan was feeling. “First and foremost have those who were members of the various Hands of Power been taken and separated, and their fate may now be decided at leisure. Also has the palace guard been reorganized, although a number of its former members remain to be examined. Many served Farian merely through necessity or a sense of duty toward the office, and these should not be punished with those who served willingly.”
“And what became of the Hand I struck?” I asked, not really wanting to know but still compelled to ask. Relgon didn’t avoid my eyes, but her mind offered me comfort even before she spoke.
“There was no need to separate that Hand,” she said, a compassionate understanding in her at how I would take the news. “They-received the power of your thrust with their minds wide, and likely were gone before any pain was able to touch them. The guards who stood beyond their chamber were completely unaware of what had occurred.”
I nodded without saying anything, feeling the admiration in the minds of the others over the fact that I’d been able to kill five people at once without even disturbing the guards who had been no more than feet away. That, of course, was why Tammad, Cinnan, and I had been put in a room alone when we’d first gotten to the palace. The Hand had strength but not control, and they’d simply saturated the entire area in order to get us. The mountain stone on the walls of the room had to act as reflectors and magnifiers—which explained why I’d felt as I had while we were traveling through the mountain pass. The walls of rock had been picking up the broadcasts of the Hand, reflecting and magnifying it and then passing it on to me. I wondered then if the white stone of the palace didn’t have some sort of magnifying abilities of its own: I hadn’t been able to even begin questioning what was happening to me as a slave until I managed to close my shield. I realized then that thinking all those thoughts was actually helping to divert me from what I’d done to the Hand, so the best thing I could do was go on with the diverting.
“What of Cinnan and Aesnil?” I asked, ashamed that I hadn’t thought to inquire sooner. “Have they been greatly harmed?”
“The Chama of Grelana was in no manner physically harmed,” Deegor put in, temporarily taking over for her sister. “Her mind, however, is greatly confused, for Farian had been attempting to make a loyal follower of her. The confusion will pass, we believe, for the Chama does not seem one who takes easily to following others. The man Cinnan, on the other hand, was not well treated in his capture, and now rests in the care of Hestin. When learning of his presence, the Chama was quick to go to his side.”
“Which will surely aid in his mending,” I said with another nod, then looked around at them. “Are there any other matters which require discussion?”
“We have not yet spoken of the most important matter of all,” Relgon said, her light eyes calm as she broached the subject no one else seemed to want to get to. “I am told that inadvertently a knowledge of our laws failed to be fully shared with you, and you were caused upset through the lack. We all wish to offer our apologies, and hope that you now see the need for such a law. As our Chama must be one with the power, to merely slay her does not allow another to take her place. The Chama must be bested with the power itself, and the one to best her then becomes Chama in her place.”
“I am aware of your reasons, yet are you mistaken upon one of the matters referred to,” I said, then moved my eyes to Leelan. “The law was not inadvertently kept from me, the omission was deliberate. I had informed Leelan that I had no wish to lead your group and she was unable to shake my resolve, therefore did she allow me to believe that I did no more than agree to be a part of it. I was kept ignorant of the fact that I strove to be Chama, for it was known that I would not wish the place. How foolish she and you are, to accept an unknown stranger as ruler of your country.”
“We would be foolish indeed, were it an unknown stranger who was accepted,” Leelan said at once, before anyone could react to my deliberate attempt at insult. “You speak truly, Terril, when you speak of my actions, yet must you see the matter through my eyes. Not only were you willing to give the aid we required, you also wished no more for yourself than assistance in freeing your memabrak. Such a one is to be considered unfit for the place of Chama? With the power you possess, another would have sought and demanded all she might, also would it have been naught to her what became of others. Have you proven to be such a one? Your concern and sense of honor mark you, girl, and truly pleased am I that your rewards are greater than those you sought. ”
Leelan sat leaning comfortably on a cushion, her pretty face showing a very satisfied expression, her mind gleeful over the way she’d made everything come out right. I suppose I could have controlled myself if she hadn’t used the word “honor,” but that was one word that made me feel rather touchy.
“How nice that you are pleased, Leelan,” I drawled, getting more comfortable against my own cushion. “As you consider it self-evident that one with concern for a country and its people will make a fine Chama, you will undoubtedly be even more pleased to know that my first official act will be the consummation of an alliance with the country of Gerleth. I am acquainted with Rellis, the Chamd of Gerleth, who has fathered two sons. Rellis will surely agree to having his younger son band a personage of Vediaster, one who was daughter to the former Chama, and in such a way will you, too, aid your country. Do you believe the alliance likely to be accepted, Dallan?”