The greedy little status hunter was probably rolling on her solitary bed right now in an ecstasy of pleasure over her coup and her good fortune.
He would have to find a way to bring her down, too, but without bringing her back to Amberdrake. That would make him suffer even more.
Now— how to go about that? And what to do to her, I wonder?
He sat himself down in hisfavorite chair, the one built into a replica of the little throne he had in his special room back in the settlement. The one with all the delightful surprises built into it....
But before he could settle himself into a good planning session, there was a knock at the door. Frowning, he started to rise, but the door opened before he could get to it, and Noyoki and Kanshin strolled in as though they belonged there.
He glared at them in outrage, and they ignored the glare to appropriate two of the best chairs in the room for themselves. They sat down without even asking if he minded!
Anger held him breathless, which in rum made him speechless.
"You've done exactly as we wanted so far, Hadanelith," Noyoki said, in that supercilious, ever-so-superior tone he always adopted when he spoke to Hadanelith. "The results have been excellent, and Kanshin and I are agreed that you have passed all the tests we set for you."
Tests? Tests? These weren't tests! What is he talking about? The overfed, obnoxious base-born bastard! What does he think he's doing? Who does he think he's dealing with?
"We've selected your next target, Hadanelith," Kanshin said—nervously though. Very nervously. Hadanelith quieted his rage and set it aside. This was odd; he'd never seen the scrawny little thief nervous about any assignment ever before. What could be so difficult about this one?
"Your next victim will be Shalaman," Noyoki said with such careless casualness that it had to be an act.
"Shalaman? The Emperor?" Hadanelith was incredulous, and even angrier than before. He jumped to his feet and faced them both with his fists clenched at his side.
"What have you been drinking? You knowI won't handle a man, I have no interest in them!"
He felt his face flush with fury and outrage. Just who did these two think they were? He'd told them he wouldn't target males—not for that, anyway! There was only one man he'd ever be willing to kill, and only after he'd made Amberdrake suffer a great deal more than he had so far! It would take years, decades, to inflict all the misery he'd planned on Amberdrake's soul!
"Now, Hadanelith, we know it's going to be dangerous," Kanshin said in a wheedling voice, as if he were a recalcitrant child. "We're prepared to take care of that. Haven't we always?"
Hadanelith shook his head violently in disgust, his vision turning red around the edges, he was so angry with them. What was the matter with them? Danger didn't worry him, and they knew it—danger was only a spice!
"I am nottargeting a male!" he spat. "I told you that before, and I'm not changing my mind just because you think you have a way to kill the Emperor and get away with it!"
"Well, if you're afraid—" Noyoki began.
Hadanelith spat on the floor at his feet in a deliberate insult. "Hardly! Why should I fear one fat old man? I won'ttake him as a target, that's all! That was our bargain—I get targets I like!" He narrowed his eyes, and the red of thwarted rage suffused his entire field of vision. "You're trying to cheat me!"
"Not cheat you—offering you a challenge to your talents!" Noyoki replied, in a coaxing tone of voice. "We know you're brilliant, we planned to give you something with more spice to it than that last target." He gave Hadanelith a sly, sideways look. "How can you resist a chance to assassinate Shalaman at the height of the Eclipse Ceremony?"
Anger vanished, collapsing into itself like a deflated bladder. He gaped at the two of them, certain now that they hadgone mad—or else that they had been drinking or otherwise ingesting something that had turned their brains to mush in the past few hours.
Assassinate the King? In public?
"You're both mad," he repeated flatly, a chill creeping up his spine. "Completely mad. You only think I'mmad; you two ought to be locked away for your own good."
Neither of them changed their expressions, or even said anything. They just watched him.
"What could you possibly tell me that would make me think you weren't mad?" he challenged, beginning to wonder himself. "Killing Shalaman—that's nothing more than suicidal! I'm not stupid, you know! And you're going to have a fine time dragging me up to the Emperor, strapping a knife into my hand, and throwing me at him, because that's the only way it's going to happen!"
In spite of himself, he felt a tiny bit of intrigue as they continued to watch him narrowly but did not reply. They must have somethingup their capacious sleeves to make this idea possible!
Something besides making the sacrificial lamb out of me, anyway.
It was enough to pique even his curiosity. He wanted to know—but he still had no intention of doing anything about it.
Letthem do it, if it's such a good scheme.And besides, they still hadn't overcome his basic objection. Shalaman was male. They had given him no reason whatsoever for him to target a male. Males were males, they were not inherently tainted like females were. There would be no thrill in it, and without the thrill, why bother?
"We have an absolutely foolproof scheme," Noyoki said with confidence. "We can get you right next to the King, you can kill him, and we can get you away before he drops to the ground."
Fine. There's still no thrill.His mood turned again, back to anger, this time a sullen anger. What did they think he was, some sort of automaton, a killing machine like a makaar, something that could be sent out on a whim and didn't care what it killed?
"No," he said flatly, folding his arms across his chest. "I don't care how well you planned this, or how foolproof it is. Shalaman's male. Our bargains never included males."
"They didn't include Winterhart, either," Noyoki said, off-handedly.
Hadanelith went cold, then hot, then cold again. His groin flared with excitement, and he fought to get himself back under control before there were any visible signs of his interest. "Winterhart?" he said, lightly, and laughed. "And just how does she enter into this?"
If I could take Winterhart— better if I could have her, mold her— but I'll never get her away from Shalaman. Death would be better; I could hold her in death forever. To be the last thing she saw as she died— to fill her mind and soul with my power to bring her down—
That would make her his forever. He would mark her, brand her as his, and take her away from Amberdrake at the same time.
"She'll be at the ceremony at Shalaman's side," Noyoki told him. "And it fits our plans very well for you to get both of them at once. Unless, of course, you don't think you have the strength and skill to kill the King." He frowned. "I wouldn't have thought that of you. Or is it that you haven't the stomach or the courage?"
"I have all of those," Hadanelith snapped. "It's that I'm not—there's no—I'm not interested in men!"
Noyoki's eyes flashed for a moment, as if something had just come clear to him. Hadanelith ignored his expression; this was a quandary, and no mistake about it. Was it worth wasting time on the King to get Winterhart?