Hurrying to the edge, I leaned out and watched it bounce across the ground ten feet from where a small squad of guardsman drilled with swords. They whirled, craning their heads to look up at me.
“Sire?” called the captain of the guard.
“Bring my knife back up, Giras!” I called. It was a nice weapon; no point losing it.
Then I went to find Freda.
Chapter 32
I found my sister in the rose garden, overseeing the new plantings. Drawing her aside, I relayed Aber's message. “What do you think of it?” I asked. She frowned thoughtfully. “It is a tempting proposition.”
“Too tempting. It's exactly what we need.”
“Yes.”
She sighed, then shook her head. “I advise patience. After all, Swayvil is preoccupied now with tightening his grip on Chaos. Leave him to his problems; we will continue to strengthen Amber. That is our best hope for survival.”
“Exactly my own conclusion,” I said.
A week passed. I didn't hear from Aber again in all that time—which half surprised me. He wasn't the sort who gave up easily. But I shrugged and went on with the seemingly endless supply of tasks that required my immediate attention. Blueprints for unbuilt sections of the castle… street-plans for the someday-soon city surrounding the castle proper… land grants for the hundreds of settlers now streaming into Amber, courtesy of Conner's recruitment efforts in nearby Shadows… and of course all the regular duties of an army commander, king, lord of the manor, and general administrator—everything from meting out justice in court to simply signing off on military duty assignments.
I wished, for the thousandth time, that I had more lieutenants to whom duties could be passed. King Aslom's sons, though of unquestioning loyalty, needed many more years of seasoning to be left on their own. And Conner had to be in nearby Shadows, buying whatever we needed, bringing in soldiers and mercenaries and artisans and all the other workers we now needed in great number.
Despite my work load, I never forgot about Aber. Perhaps, I thought at times, he would grow content to stay in Chaos and crow about his heroic accomplishments… If it impressed his friends and the women of the Courts, who was I to object? So long as he kept out of my way, I would not pursue revenge.
Overall, life felt good. As the castle crept toward completion, as the population grew and the army took shape, a sense of pride filled me. This was what I had been born to do. Amber would stand forever.
Busy as my days became, I made sure our family managed to gather as often as possible for dinner.
When the banquet hall was finally finished to her satisfaction, Freda set it up magnificently—long and broad, it had twin columns of white marble to either side of a fifty-foot-long table. A pair of crystal chandeliers glittered with the light of two thousand candles. Tapestries on the walls showed cheerful scenes—hunting stags, epic battles, and portraits of family members in handsome poses. Freda had commissioned one of me in kingly robes with a gold circlet on my head, beaming down at the table. I had to admit it was a good likeness.
She had also commissioned portraits of all our brothers and sisters, even the missing and the dead. I walked down the row of them, staring up at the missing and the dead. Locke… Davin… Mattus… Titus. So many…
A portrait of Aber hung at the very end, where it could not be seen from my seat at the head of the table. I frowned up at it. No, this would not do at all.
I called one of the stewards over. “This one… I don't want to see it.”
“I will have it taken down, Sire,” he said.
“No. Drape it in black.”
“Are we to be in mourning for Lord Aber?” the steward asked, looking puzzled. “Isn't he still alive?”
“Yes… and yes.”
That night, after dinner, Freda turned to me and said, “I need to speak with you.”
“Oh?” I raised my eyebrows and took another sip of wine. Mentally, I sighed. She must have noticed the black crepe over Aber's tapestry; at least she had waited till the end of the meal to bring it up.
“At your convenience, of course.”
“Is it about Aber?”
“Yes.”
I took another sip of wine, studying her over the rim of my goblet. Somehow, I had known this was coming. I had a sudden premonition that he had contacted her again… asked her to intercede with me. She still loved him, I knew. She would certainly prove the weakest link in getting back into my good graces.
Not that I would ever let it happen.
I sighed. “Go on.” I could at least hear her out. I owed her that much.
She said, “He wants me to talk to you about Swayvil's offer. I told him I would.”
I snorted. “It's a most generous offer, I'm sure. But I'm no one's puppet.”
“You should refuse,” she went on. “You must never go back to Chaos. And you must never trust Swayvil, Suhuy, or Aber again.”
I sat up. “What! I thought you would be in favor of it. A return to Chaos… freedom for Pella…”
“I know.” She shook her head unhappily. “I think the offer was meant as a distraction for us. For you.”
“How so?” I wouldn't have accepted Swayvil's offer anyway, but I wanted to know her reasoning.
“Swayvil has a history of deception and misdirection. Aber may be my brother, and I love him, but I do recognize his flaws. He is too clever for his own good. Now he has fallen under Swayvil's influence, and none of us must trust him. The words he speaks and the plots he weaves are not his own. They are Swayvil's—and he cannot see the whole of them.”
“You can?”
She hesitated. “I… suspect things.”
Nodding, I said, “I do, too. You said the offer was a distraction.”
“Yes. What better way to put us off our guard? What better way to lure you back to Chaos?”
“Possibly.” I nodded slowly. “But why? He would not be able to kill me once I got there, if he publicly promised that pardon.”
“He can make the terms unpalatable to you.”
“Then I would refuse…”
“And?”
Frowning, I finished my thought: “… which is what he wants. If I refuse to swear allegiance to him, he will be free to move against Amber!”
“In the meantime, you will have been in Chaos. Distracted. Cut off from our troops. Everyone here will be unprepared. Perhaps the attack will occur while you are in Chaos… and there will be no Amber for you to return to.”
I swallowed. “Devious…”
She smiled thinly. “You begin to see the nature of politics in Chaos. King Uthor did not play the game well enough. We must.”
“If Swayvil is ready to move against us…”
“He is,” she said firmly.
“… then we must move against him first. We will fight as we would have fought against Uthor. Nothing has changed.”
I rose and paced. We would have to prepare ourselves, and quickly. My army numbered, what three hundred thousand? And we had been making allies among the neighboring Shadows. If we ran into trouble, we might be able to field as many as a half-million men.
And, of course, Conner had been approaching more of his “special forces,” as he liked to call dragons, ogres, trolls, and other non-human denizens of Shadow… they, too, would join us. We would meet whatever price they demanded.
We would need to dispatch scouts into Shadow… begin looking for Swayvil's forces as they marched on Amber…
“Please,” Freda said. “Bring Aber back? Before Swayvil tires of him and has him killed—for me?”
I swallowed hard. It pained me, but I had to be firm in my resolve.
“I cannot,” I said softly. “Do not ask me to.” I could never forgive him for what he had done.
“Is that your final decision?”
“Yes.” I could not look her in the eye.
She bowed her head. “As you will… Sire.”