In that attitude he went to his nightly meeting with his brother.
Erij did not appreciate the bitter humor of it.
What nonsense is this? Erij snapped at him. Vanye, yon disgrace the house.
I have already done that, Vanye said quietly. Erij stared at him then, displeased, but he had the sense to let him alone upon the matter. Vanye set himself at table and ate without looking up from his plate or saying many words, and Erij ate also, but pushed away his own plate half-eaten.
Brother, said Erij, you are trying to shame me.
Vanye left the table and went over to stand by the hearth, the only truly warm place in all the room. After a moment Erij followed him and set his hand on his shoulder, making him look at him.
Am I free to go? Vanye asked, and Erij swore.
No, you are not free to go. You are family and you have an obligation here.
To what? To you, after this? Vanye looked up at him and found it impossible to be angry: there was truly misery on Erijs face at the moment, and he had never known prolonged repentence in his brother. He did not know how to judge it. He walked back to the table and cast himself down there. Erij followed him back and sat down again.
If I gave you weapons and a horse, Erij asked him, what would you? Follow her?
I am bound by an oath, be said, still. And then, to see if he could wring it from Erij: Where is she?
Camped near Baien-ei.
Will you give me the weapons and the horse?
No, I will not. Brother, you are Nhi. I pardon your other offenses. I hold nothing against you.
I thank you for that, said Vanye quietly. So do I yours against me.
Erij bit his lip; almost the old temper flared in him, but he restrained it. He bowed his head and nodded. They have been considerable, he acknowledged, of which this latest has been one of the lesser. But I swear to you, you will be my brother, heir next my own children. And it would be a greater Morija than either I or our father ruled, if you came to your senses.
Vanye reached for the wine cup. Something of the words jarred within him. He set it down again. What is it you want of me?
You know the witch. You are intimate with her. You know what she seeks and I would wager that you know how it is to be had: that is implicit in the commission she gave you. I will warrant you have seen her use whatever powers she holds in those weapons of hers; you have passed together through Koriswood. I would even suspect that you know how they are used. I am not a man that believes in magic, Vanye, and neither, I suspect, are you, for all your Chya heritage. Things happen through the hands of men, not by wishes upon wands and out of thin air. Is that not so?
What has this to do with me and you?
Show me how these things are done. Keep your oath to kill Thiye if you wilclass="underline" but with my help. Remember that you are of human blood; and remember what loyalties you owe to your own kind. Listen to me! Listen. Not since Irien has there been a power in Andur-Kursh save that of Hjemur, and this was of her making, out of her lies and her leading. Our fathers kingdom once ranked high in the Middle Realms. The old High Kings are gone now and so is that power we once held, thanks to her. And it is within our hands to win it back again, yours and mine. Look at me, little brother! I swear to youI swear to you that you will be second only to me.
I am still ilin, he protested, and I am safe from all your promises. Morgaines power is in what she wields, and unless you are a liar, she still holds it. Do not challenge her, Erij, or she will be the death of you: she will kill. And I do not want to see that happen.
Listen to me. Whatever she means to do with the Witchfires, whatever she means to do with Thiyes power once she has possessed itshe is no friend of ours. We exchange one Thiye for another, she holding what he held, and she more unhuman than ever he was. Look at what Thiye has done with it, and he is at least in some part man. But she... the use of such powers is like the breath of air to her, the element in which she moves; and she is ambitious, for revenge, for power, for what else we do not know. What were you to her against the ambition that moves her? Think on that, brother.
You said that she is camped near Baien-ei, Vanye answered. That does not sound to me like what she would do if she had utterly deserted me. She is waiting. She expects me to come if I can.
Erij laughed, and the grin slowly died in Vanyes cold, unhappy stare. You are naive, said Erij then. What she is waiting for is not you, not so small a thing as that to her.
What, then, would that be?
Will you show me the manner of the power she uses? Erij asked him. I do not ask you to break oath. If she seeks the death of Thiye and the fall of Hjemur, I have no quarrel with that; but if she seeks power for herself, then has she not used you shamefully, Vanye? Is that the oath you swore to her, that you would help set her in power over your own people? If that were so, it was a shameful oath.
She means to break the power of Thiye, he said, there was nothing said of creating any other power.
Oh, come, said Erij. And having ruined him... what? To live in poverty, to retreat to obscurity? Or to risk being overtaken by the bloodfeuds of so many enemies? Having taken powershe will hold it. You are nothing to her; I offered her to have you back, at the exchange of her word to go south again. She refused.
Vanye shrugged, for he had known of her that he had no importance when he ceased to serve her purposes: she had never deluded him in that.
She simply threw you aside, said Erij. And what might a heart like that do once in power in Hjemur, when she needs nothing? She will grow the more cold, and the more dangerous. I had rather an enemy with tempers and honest hates. I had rather a human enemy. Thiye is old and half-mad; he muddles about with his beasts and his self-indulgence, and seldom stirs. He has never made war on us, neither he nor his ancestors. But can you see the like of Morgaine being content with things as they are for long?
And what would you create of it, Erij? he asked harshly. The like of what I have seen in Ra-morij?
Look about you at Morija, said Erij. Look at its people, It does not fare too badly. Did you see anything amiss, anything in the land or the villages that would be better changed? We have our law, the blessing of church, the peace of our fields and our enemies in Chya fear us. That is my work. I am not ashamed of what I have done here.
It is true that Morija is faring well now, Vanye said. But you, yourself, you cannot handle the things that Morgaine does; and she will not yield them. Seek her for an ally if you will. That is the best thing you can do for yourself and Morija.
Like the ten thousand at Irien that she and her allies helped?
She did not kill them. That much is a lie.
But that is what came of her help, all the same. And I would not lay Morija and Nhi open to the same kind of thing. I would not trust her. But this thisI would trust, that she values powerfully. Excitedly he rose from his place and from the cabinet near the table he drew out a cloth-wrapped bundle. When he took it in his hand the cloth fell away at the top and Vanye saw to his dismay the dragon-hilt of Changeling. This is what holds her encamped at Baien-ei, her desire for this. And I would wager, brother, that you know something of it.