Kellanved's Reach by Ian C. Esslemont

Author:Ian C. Esslemont
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group

* * *

Despite having specifically chosen a windowless room with one barred and locked door, Tarel slept poorly. He kept thinking he’d heard the door open, and had to glance at it, checking it in the light of his single candle, again and again. It was the spectre of his sister, of course. Haunting him.

But he’d beaten her. Finally. After so many years. And soon she would be a ghost, in a very real headless sense. The thought calmed him, and he lay back once more.

Then he stiffened, unable even to breathe. In the chair, in the shadows, had someone been…?

Very slowly, he raised his head to peer over. Indeed, someone was now occupying the one chair. His sister. Sureth.

His breath left him in an explosive gasp – almost a cry.

‘I gave you every chance,’ she said, sounding her old disappointed self.

‘I beat you,’ he whispered back. ‘Beat you.’

She shook her head. ‘This was inevitable. I’m sorry.’

He managed to swallow. ‘And if I were to call for the guards?’

‘They are my guards.’

‘Damn you! Damn you, damn you! I won!’

She raised a hand, as she always did to silence his tirades. ‘You have one choice.’

‘And what is that choice? Death?’

‘Abdication. Relinquish your authority to the Council of Elders. Retire to the family villa on Rueth Isle.’

‘Relinquish authority to you, you mean!’

She shook her head once more. ‘No. The Council. They can have it. I’m interested in … other things.’

He waved a finger at her. ‘No, no, no. It’s a trick. A trick! You’ll take it.’

She surged from the chair. ‘I have no need for tricks, do I?’

Tarel pulled the covers higher. ‘You’re threatening me. Your own brother! Why can’t I rule?’

Now she rubbed her forehead, sighing. ‘Just abdicate. In the morning. I will have the Council summoned.’

He was thinking ahead now. He could abdicate – for the moment. But on Rueth he could plan anew. Regroup. Try again. Yes! A better plan. ‘Very well,’ he said. ‘I will do as you ask. Devolve power to the Council.’

‘Very good,’ she answered, and headed to the door. Unbarring it, she paused, and turned back to him. ‘By the way. Remember that half the people you will contact to plot with, and half your guards, and half the servants at the villa … will all, secretly, be working for me. You’ll just never know which half.’ She shut the door behind her.

Tarel pressed his face into his pillow and screamed.

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