Zandru's Forge by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Author:Marion Zimmer Bradley [Bradley, Marion Zimmer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Usernet, C429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9780756401498
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2003-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

The coridom took care of disposing of the assassin’s body. Varzil sat up with Carolin long into the evening, talking about what had happened. A fire had been laid in the comfortable sitting room, though the night was mild. The household had gone to great lengths to welcome its master, and it had taken most of the evening to find a moment of quiet. Even so, Carolin had had to kindly ask the coridom’s wife, who remembered him as a lad, to please leave them to their talk.

Carolin was clearly bent on dismissing the attack as the actions of a madman. Varzil fought his rising anxiety, trying not to say, Someone tried to kill you. It is not the first attempt. Next time, they might succeed.

“If you’re thinking about Eduin, I won’t hear of it,” Carolin responded to Varzil’s unvoiced thought. “The incident with the starstone was an accident, a misunderstanding. I said once that the two of you were going to have to work out your grievances, but I didn’t mean using me as the battleground.” He sat back in the huge, upholstered chair that clearly had seen better days, one hand unconsciously tracing the embroidered pattern of castles, sword ivy, and rosalys.

Varzil bent forward, resting his elbows on his knees. Deliberately, he avoided mentioning the fall in the orchard at Arilinn. It had been a long time ago. Perhaps Carolin was right about Eduin after all….

“What about the black-and-white banner?” he said, unable to give it up entirely. “And the words, We will be avenged? This attack was aimed at you, the next Hastur King. Who feels themselves wronged by your family? Who harbors such bitter hatred?”

“Let go of it, Varzil, before you drive both of us mad!” Carolin straightened in his chair. “Don’t you understand? Even a King who is loved has enemies. It’s one thing to exercise prudent care, and quite another to see evildoers in every shadow. If I insisted on tracing every possible threat to its very end, I’d never do anything else!”

“Carlo, if anything happened to you—”

“Bredu.” In a lightning move, Carolin reached out and captured one of Varzil’s hands between his own. Varzil, who knew only the rudiments of swordsmanship and had spent little time around fighting men, had not realized just how quick or powerful his friend was.

“Would you have me cripple myself trying to prevent every conceivable catastrophe?” Carolin said. “Life must be lived on its own terms, and part of being a Hastur, let alone a king, is the ongoing risk. Not what you face in the circle—” Here he gave a quick grimace that brought an answering smile from Varzil. “—but others. I have been born and trained to those risks.”

Don’t ask me to be less than I am.

Varzil caught the unspoken thought. How would he react if Carolin fretted every time he joined a circle or linked with one of the matrix screens that made possible the complex, sophisticated work of the Towers?

I would say that such risks are mine to take.

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