“To help me?” Will sputtered. “And yes, you’ve done something. This isn’t the first letter, is it? You’ve known for some time, probably since the day she left.” Selene’s lips compressed into a line as he continued. “How many letters has he sent? If I open your desk drawer, what will I find?”

  She raised her chin. “Nothing. I burned them.” She glanced at the other windows. “And if you don’t calm down, there won’t be any glass left in the house.”

  Will made a conscious effort to still the turyn around him, but then replied, “I’m so mad right now there might not be a house in an hour’s time. Did you really think you were helping? This is not a price I’m willing to pay.”

  “She’s willing,” stated Selene. “I would do the same in her place. In fact, I’d do worse to protect you. Much worse.”

  “I don’t want you to protect me. I want you to help me. Why?”

  Her composure finally broke, and Selene’s voice cracked as she answered, “Because he’ll kill you, William. Don’t you understand? If you go, you’ll die. This is what my father does!”

  He started to argue, “You don’t—"

  “You aren’t smart enough!” she shouted. “No one is. It doesn’t matter how powerful you are either. This is how he wins. It’s how he always wins. Whatever he’s set up, if you go back to the capital, you won’t survive. The only hope you have—we have—is to stick to the plan. Don’t let him provoke you.”

  “I’m not letting him have her.”

  “Then you’ll die, and what then? Do you think he’ll call off the wedding for your funeral?”

  The words stung so much that in that moment he almost forgot to breathe. “You’re saying I’m being selfish—you—when you’re willing to let Tabitha suffer for my sake.”

  She nodded. “We can’t win if you let him manipulate you. Defeating my father is risky enough, but without your power to rein in the nobility after his death, the nation will fall into civil war. This is a price you have to accept, for everyone’s sake, regardless of your own feelings.”

  “For everyone’s sake, or yours?”

  Selene visibly froze. “What does that mean?”

  “You’re worried about the transition of power, from him to you. I’m worried about the people I love.”

  “I don’t even want the throne,” she argued. “You’re the one who refuses to accept it.”

  “We both know you’d be in charge either way. Your priorities here only emphasize the point.”

  “That’s not true.”

  The disgust he felt was so great that Will looked away. Instead, he turned to Tiny. “Do you still want to enter my service?”

  Tiny seemed confused. That was the whole point of him leaving Sir Kyle’s service and returning to Rimberlin, after all. He nodded. “Of course, but…”

  “Swear now then. We leave in the morning.” The oath and his response went quickly, albeit awkwardly. When it was done, Will started for the door, brushing past his wife, who had been doing a passable imitation of a statue.

  His leaving startled her into motion again. “Will, you can’t do this…”

  “This is exactly what I’m doing,” he bit back. “I’ll sleep in one of the other rooms tonight, so don’t wait up for me.”

  Despite the abrupt ending, Selene didn’t lose her temper, much less her composure. She was made of sterner stuff than that. Ordinarily, Will wouldn’t have dreamed of deliberately provoking her, as she always found other ways to find retribution, but he was too angry to do anything else. Behind him, he heard her call for Blake to get Tiny settled in for the night.

  For his own part, Will did find a bed in one of the spare rooms, but he failed to sleep. Stubborn as ever, he didn’t give up, though. He kept still and brooded, turning the fight over and over in his head. Two hours later and he still felt justified, though he regretted some of his harshness. More importantly, his head cooled, and he began to think things through.

  His wife was probably correct in her assessment. She usually was. That rankled, but he still had no intention of letting Tabitha go through with her sacrificial gesture. Even so, charging into the palace was almost certainly the worst thing he could do. Will wasn’t convinced he would die, but a lot of others almost certainly would, and depending on what Logion had planned, the collateral damage might extend well beyond the palace grounds.

  He summoned one of the swords stored in the limnthal and held it up above his head so he could study it. There was nothing special about it, other than the deadly spell he had placed upon the blade. It was the same spell he had dreamed up for his battle with the demon-lord, though Selene had been the one to create the final design. No matter how desperate things get, I can’t use it in Cerria, though.

  When activated, the spell would translate the steel blade into the ethereal plane, where it would remain until the wielder released the hilt. At that point, the wielder would be moved to the ethereal plane while the blade would return to the normal world. If the blade occupied something solid when it rematerialized—like the space within a human body, or a tree, or anything physical—a violent explosion would result. Any given volume of space could only hold so much physical material, and if more appeared within the same volume, a large portion of it would be converted into pure energy.

  When he’d used it before, the resulting blast had leveled a large area and he was afraid if he used it inside the palace, it would not only annihilate everyone there, it might also cause significant collateral damage to the building. He sent the sword back into storage and summoned out a handful of steel spikes. Laina’s bodyguard called them war darts, and they were meant to be thrown by hand. Each one weighed a couple of pounds, and their points were razor sharp.

  They were made such that their balance was close to the point, making it easy to strike a target properly. Will had no intention of using them in a purely mundane fashion, however. The new spell he was working on was meant for them, and if it worked properly, it would give him a trump card that caused less collateral damage than the ethereal sword spell.

  But it might be even more dangerous for the user, thought Will. Given the ranged application, he hadn’t figured out a way to precisely time the transition from ethereal to material and vice versa. Instead, he was counting on making sure that only a tiny portion of the dart actually translated to the ethereal and back again. If the amount of matter was small enough it should also limit the size of the explosion, but although he had calculated the numbers several times over, he couldn’t be sure what they meant in the real world. Smaller, fine—but would it be small enough?

  That meant he couldn’t really use either of his surefire game-enders. One would kill thousands of innocents, and the other might kill him and an uncertain number of bystanders. The real question was whether he was wizard enough to not need such tactics to win. He’d been training for years, and although in the early days it hadn’t seemed to matter, he was now starting to reap unexpected benefits almost daily. Constructing spells, even new ones, was easier than ever, and he was continually being surprised when he discovered he was able to reflex cast yet another spell during his practices. His will was strong enough now to suppress the spell casting of anyone near him, with the possible notable exception of Grim Talek, the lich.

  Combine those factors with his continually improving battle reflexes, honed through daily practice, and his rapidly expanding repertoire of spells—the conclusion was inevitable. I should be invincible, he told himself. But he knew better.

  Lognion himself was a partial unknown. Will had a rough gauge of the man’s will from previous encounters, plus the monarch’s utter defeat by the master vampire Androv showed him that the man was obviously not invulnerable. Will had been the one to defeat the vampire, and worse opponents since. One-on-one, he was fairly confident he could win, but the king wouldn’t be alone.

  He knows all this too, and I’m letting him pick the battleground. “Selene’s right. He’s setting me up and he’s sure of his own victory.” There was only one answer, not to fight. If the king was trying to provoke him publicly, it meant the man wanted Will to start the fight. That would give Lognion the excuse he needed, and whatever happened thereafter would be seen as the justifiable response to treason.

  Not only that, but it would resolidify Lognion’s power. After the war with Darrow, Will had earned a reputation as a nearly unstoppable force. If he was shown to be a traitor, and then defeated by the king, no one would dare to oppose Lognion.

  “But I’m still not letting him have Tabitha,” Will muttered. “So, what do I do?” And then he knew.

  Jumping up he kicked his way free of the covers and pulled on a robe before rushing out of the room. A minute later, he was outside his own bedroom. Without pausing he opened the door and went in, and for a few seconds he thought Selene was absent. The bed they shared was a wreck, with all the blankets and covers twisted into a tangled mess covering the center of the mattress and exposing the sides.

  But the room was redolent with her distinctive turyn, and when he glanced at the bed a second time, he saw a slender foot sticking out of the chaos. “Selene? Are you alright?” he asked tentatively. The foot promptly disappeared, pulled back into the twisted linens. “Too late. You’ve been spotted,” he told her.

  Reaching out, he started to untangle the bedsheets and nearly lost some teeth when the foot reappeared, kicking dangerously close to his face. Since she couldn’t see, Will assumed she wasn’t aiming for his head, but then again, he wasn’t entirely certain. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  He sighed. “You’re right, and I’m still angry about you hiding this from me, but I think I have a solution.”

  The amorphous mass in the center of the bed went still, then rose up. A few seconds later, Selene’s head appeared. Red, swollen eyes, blotchy cheeks, and hair that looked as though it might house an entire family of rats. His wife was anything but beautiful at the moment, yet despite his residual anger, her appearance tugged at something within his chest. She studied him warily. “You’re going to stick to the plan?”

  He shook his head. “No, but I’m not going to fight.”

  Her features froze. “What does that mean?”

  “I’m not going to do what he wants. He wants to provoke a fight. A premature fight that allows him all the advantages.”

  Her expression turned sour. “Obviously, but just saying you’re not going to fight doesn’t explain anything. What do you actually mean?”

  “Your father is trying—”

  “Don’t call him that,” she snapped.

  “The king is trying to draw me into a political situation and force me to start hostilities there. That way he can kill me and reap the rewards of reaffirming his power. He’s greedy, you see?”

  She looked thoughtful. “Explain further.”

  “He’s given away part of his design,” said Will. “He wants to strengthen his position. Winning the war with Darrow made me popular. It made me dangerous to him, politically, so he doesn’t just want to eliminate me quietly, he wants me to reveal my hostility, to give him the moral high ground.”

  Selene nodded. “I’m pretty sure I’ve told you all this before.”

  “But I didn’t realize how it allows us to predict his actions to a certain degree,” agreed Will. “He wants me to show up angry and reveal my intentions. That’s why he’s marrying Tabitha, to provoke me.”

  She sighed. “I’m going to throttle you if you keep restating the obvious. I’ve said all of this already. That’s why you can’t take the bait.”

  Will shook his head. “I’m not letting him have her, but I won’t bite either. If he wants me dead, he will have to start it, and that spoils his plans.”

  “So, what? You’re going to politely tell him no and walk out with your sister?”

  “I’ll show up, play nice, and pretend I’m unwilling to fight. I won’t declare anything, but the first chance I get, I’ll take them and run.”

  His wife stared at him in confusion. “Huh?”

  “I’ll take her and run. She’s not a prisoner. I’ll take Agnes and Laina too. Given how angry she is, I imagine Laina will help.”

  Selene gaped. “That ruins everything—for us. It will start a civil war. You won’t be able to kill him cleanly. Plus, he controls Laina. As soon as he finds out they’ve fled, he can use the enchantment to question her. He’ll find you immediately.”

  Will set his jaw. “That’s the best I can offer.”

  “Civil war?”

  “It screws up everyone’s plans, his and ours, but I’ll be alive. I’m not letting him have my family. Not you, not her, not Laina, Sammy, my mother, not even Agnes Nerrow. If the world has to burn, so be it. I never claimed to be perfect. I’m not taking the blame for Lognion’s actions. He’s pushing me into a corner, the consequences are on his shoulders, not mine.”

  Selene inhaled deeply, held it a moment, then exhaled. “Fine. I’ll take it, but you have to remain cool-headed.”

  He hadn’t expected that response. “You agree?”

  “No. It’s terrible and we’re going to wind up with a messy, chaotic war, but as long as you’re alive that’s enough for me. I still think the other option is better.”

  Will grimaced. “She’d be his wife for weeks, months maybe. It’s unthinkable.”

  “She’s tougher than you think. It’s just sex, William. Especially for him, I don’t think he even has human desires, not as we know them. He’s a monster, but he’d just be going through the motions to get the child he wants. Maybe I’m terrible for this, but I think it’s much better than what you propose. A lot of people may die in this war you’re about to precipitate.”

  “It’s not just sex, it’s rape. I won’t make this a war, though. We won’t mobilize. I’ll take them and hide them with my mother. After that I’ll be an outlaw—until I manage to kill him.”

  “And Laina? This is insanity.”

  “You take her somewhere else. He won’t be out to kill you or her.”

  “He’ll use her to get you, and you overestimate his fatherly sentiments.”

  “I won’t give him that much time. As soon as they’re hidden, I’ll switch to Plan C. One way or another it will be over and done within a week or two at most.”

  Plan C hardly deserved being described as a ‘plan.’ It was shorthand for a surprise one-man assault. Selene frowned. “Once again, how is this better?”

  “It won’t be at the time or place of his choosing. That’s the best I’ve got,” said Will. “He may have the better plan, but I have the bigger hammer. All I have to do is avoid stepping into the trap. If I fight anywhere or anytime else, I can win.”

  She stared at him worriedly, chewing her lip. “You sure about that?”

  “You designed the most recent training scenarios. Do you think anyone could stop me?”

  Her reply was immediate. “No, but a million things could go wrong.” She paused. “If you succeed, you’re stuck with me. I’ll hold onto you until you’re sick of the sight of me.”

  Will smiled faintly. “Never happen. What if I don’t succeed?”

  “I’ll follow you into death, track you down in the underworld and make eternity miserable for you,” she replied venomously.

  He smirked. “Sounds like I win either way.”

  Chapter 9

  Tiny was much relieved when it became apparent that the tension between Will and Selene had dissipated. The rest of the household was thrown into turmoil, however, when Will announced his sudden trip and Selene began issuing orders in preparation for it. She gave the staff little more than an hour from breakfast to pack their things and prepare the carriage for the trip to the capital.

  Some energetic discussions occurred over who would be coming and who would not. Sammy was devastated by the news she would be staying home. Emory also seemed mildly disappointed, but he hurried to assure Will he would be ready to protect the house if the need arose.

  That set Will to bristling, for he knew the young nobleman was referring mainly to Sammy, and he was loath to leave the two of them alone together. Technically they wouldn’t be alone, of course. Janice was staying behind, as well as the staff, but that didn’t feel like enough for him.

  Tiny also had concerns. “You’re going into a risky situation. Is it wise to leave your best wizards behind?”

  Will stared back at the big man, measuring his intentions. He’s disappointed that Janice won’t be with us. “They’re barely past the compression sickness. Even if they feel mostly normal, I wouldn’t risk them in a stressful combat situation.”

  “Janice told me she elected not to undergo the third compression. She should be fully capable currently. She’s been to war before, and although she’s still a newly minted second-order wizard, she’s already well trained and experienced.” Tiny paused, then went on, “I understand that Sammy is still a novice, and Emory, despite his skills, is possibly still compromised by the recent compression, but Janice is fully prepared to support you.”

  Will raised one brow. “You spoke to her this morning?”

  Tiny nodded, disappointment flickering briefly across his face. “Not for long. She said her stomach was bothering her.” The massive knight shifted on his heels, seeming uncomfortable. “I’m not sure I believe it, though. It seems as though she’s avoiding me.”

  Morning sickness. Will put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Trust me. She really isn’t feeling her best right now, otherwise I’m sure she would have argued when I told her I wanted her to stay here.”

  Tiny narrowed his eyes. “A foolish decision.”

  “I have you to watch my back, not to mention the most powerful wizard in the world.”

  “I’m just a simple warrior, and you can’t count yourself when it comes to guarding your back.”

  Will smirked. “I meant Selene. Her knowledge is greater than mine, her skills are extraordinary, and she’s had the longest amount of time to adjust to the third compression. I wouldn’t bet on it just yet, but before long I’d guess she might be more than enough to beat Lognion all by her lonesome.”