Rhulad looked ready to weep. ‘Treason among the Edur? My Edur? No, this cannot be-has he proof?’
A faint shrug. ‘Highness, I doubt he would have ventured this inquiry had he not inadvertently stumbled on some… sensitive information.’
‘Go away. Get out. Get out!’
Triban Gnol bowed, then backed from the chamber. Perhaps he’d gone too far, yet the seed had been planted. In most fertile soil.
As soon as the outer doors closed, Nisall stepped from the alcove. Rhulad waved her closer.
‘My love,’ he whispered in a child’s voice, ‘what am I to do? The demon-they brought it here.’
‘You cannot be defeated, Emperor.’
And to destroy it, how many times must I die? No, I’m not ready. Binadas was a powerful sorcerer, rival to the Warlock King himself. My brother…’
‘It may be,’ Nisall ventured, ‘that the Chancellor erred in the details of that. It may indeed be that Tomad’s dream was a deceitful sending-there are many gods and spirits out there who see the Crippled God as an enemy.’
‘No more. I am cursed into confusion; I don’t understand any of this. What is happening, Nisall?’
‘Palace ambitions, beloved. The return of the fleets has stirred things up.’
‘My own Edur… plotting treason…’
She reached out and set a hand on his left shoulder. The lightest of touches, momentary, then withdrawn once more. Dare I? ‘Karos Invictad is perhaps the most ambitious of them all. He revels in his reign of terror among the Letherii, and would expand it to include the Tiste Edur. Highness, I am Letherii-I know men like the Invigilator, I know what drives them, what feeds their malign souls. He hungers for control, for his heart quails in fear at all that is outside his control-at chaos itself. In his world, he is assailed on all sides. Highness, Karos Invictad’s ideal world is one surrounded by a sea of corpses, every unknown and unknowable obliterated. And even then, he will find no peace.’
‘Perhaps he should face me in the arena,’ Rhulad said, with a sudden vicious smile. ‘Face to face with a child of chaos, yes? But no, I need him to hunt down his Letherii. The traitors.’
‘And shall this Letherii be granted domination over Tiste Edur as well?’