Trial of Fire (23 page)

Later, when it was safer, Jenn would send them to the nearest villages, but that would have to be done quietly and carefully: they couldn’t allow their presence to be noticed by anyone. Robert had certainly chosen a good spot for his hideaway: in the middle of the country, but still isolated, giving him the freedom to come and go as he wished.

The damp forest smelled wonderful and Jenn breathed deeply; for the first time in a long time, she began to relax a little. Now all she needed was—

‘Jenn? Jenn!’ She turned to find Finnlay’s youngest, Anna, running towards her, waving her arms and leaping over small bushes. ‘Uncle Robert’s awake, Uncle Robert’s awake! Papa said to tell you!’

*

He was sitting up by the time she got to him. Finnlay was there, and Martha, and Arlie was applying his Healing talents to Robert’s back. The moment she arrived, Martha caught Finnlay’s arm and drew him out of the cave. Jenn couldn’t read their expressions.

‘You’re right,’ Arlie said, packing up his salves and bandages. ‘The burns are no worse and are healing well. That sleep did you the power of good.’ He looked up at Jenn, then exited quietly, leaving her alone with Robert.

He barely looked at her. Instead, he cast his gaze around the room,
paying attention to detail, the things they’d changed, furniture they’d moved. Then he threw back his blankets, swung his feet out of bed and stood up slowly.

Jenn moved to help him, but he held his hand out to stay her. As soon as he was upright, he stretched and she heard his spine pop back into place. His shirt was grey and rumpled, his trousers splattered with mud. Even his bare feet looked tired. She watched him for a moment, then turned to pour them both a cup of brew from the pot hanging by the fireplace. She put his cup on the table, where he could reach it easily.

Robert pulled out a chair and sank into it slowly. With his elbows on the table, he ran his fingers through his hair, then picked up his brew and swallowed loudly. With his voice husky and tired, he asked, ‘How did he regenerate? That’s what we need to know. How did he get from being horribly crippled and unable to fight me, to being so strong he can stretch his Seeking across the country and find me struggling with the Key?’ Robert emptied his cup. ‘And how, in the name of Serin, did he manage to subdue the will of thirty and more Malachi so they would obey his every command?’

‘Malachi?’

‘His men, most of them were Malachi. Couldn’t you tell? Finnlay said Nash practised a perversion of the Bonding – but it seems impossible that he’s managed to get thirty-odd Malachi to consent to such a thing.’ He didn’t wait for her answer. Instead, he got to his feet, went to the fire and refilled his cup from the pot. Without thinking, Jenn moved to refill it and put in fresh leaves. She set the pot over the flames to boil.

She
hadn’t
noticed the Malachi – but then, she hadn’t actually got that close to Nash. And she had been concentrating too much on
him
to really think about the men behind him.

Robert stood beside her, his gaze centring on the fire, but reaching much further. ‘I can’t fight him like this.’

‘Robert, you’re exhausted and injured. When you’re rested—’

‘Even rested, at my very best, he’s far more powerful than I am now. By rights—’ He broke off to look into the flames. ‘By rights, we should be equally matched. That would make sense to me: if we are destined to battle, then it should never have been a question of who was more powerful, but who was stronger … By the gods, I’m trying to make sense of the
Prophecy
now – I
must
be tired.’

‘You are tired.’ Jenn deliberately didn’t reach out the way she wanted to. ‘And so you’re seeing the worst of everything, forgetting that you’re not alone in this.’

He still didn’t look at her. ‘But I
am
alone in this. Nowhere in the
Prophecy does it say that you and I fight him together, or that I get help from any other quarter.’

‘Robert, accepting the Prophecy doesn’t mean you have to follow it to the letter!’

‘But you said the Prophecy was the answer, not the question. So help me, Jenn, I can’t find a single answer in it. At least, not the Prophecy we know. Perhaps Nash has a different version, but I can’t imagine that will give
me
any hope or he wouldn’t bother fighting this battle in the first place.’

Jenn swallowed. Robert’s face reflected flickering shadows from the fire. She had promised him no more lies; even excepting the great lie about Andrew, she couldn’t keep this from him. ‘It wouldn’t give you hope, no.’

At that, Robert finally turned to look at her, his gaze searching, hard, and she felt trapped, though he exerted no power.

‘What did he say to you?’ He asked with so little voice it felt as though Robert was as afraid of the question as he was of the answer. She saw the shadows in his eyes, heard the tremor in his voice.

She had spoken with Nash – and Robert had sent her to do it. Could he still trust her – assuming he had ever trusted her?

‘He said,’ she began carefully, breathing steadily to both still the catch in her voice and the shaking in her hands, ‘that you were … destined to destroy me. That the only way you could avoid that fate would be to give me up to him.’

For a moment, Robert didn’t move. He might have been made of stone. Then his gaze dropped back to the fire. He shuddered once, then ran a hand over his eyes. ‘Serin’s blood!’ He turned away from the fire then and made for his chair by the table.

Almost without thinking, Jenn opened up one of the canvas bags and brought out one of the last loaves of bread and sliced some salted ham. She put these things on the table before him, and wished he’d had the foresight, at some point, to build a door over the entrance to this cave. These were not things she wanted anybody else to know – or perhaps Finnlay had known this and ensured everybody would be out working in the forest somewhere.

‘I have no time left,’ Robert said after a moment, his fingers idly pulling off bits of bread that he didn’t eat. ‘I can rest here perhaps one more day, but no more.’

‘Then what happens?’

‘Then I need to take Andrew with me and—’

‘Sweet Mineah,’ Jenn murmured, sinking into a chair opposite him. She was going to lose both of them, she knew it, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Was that the whole point of the Prophecy, that she was
merely a pawn to be held to ransom between Robert and Nash? That couldn’t be it – and yet, that was exactly how Robert wished to view it. Nash had given him the knowledge of how he could be beaten, knowing full well that Robert would never give in.

‘How does he know?’

‘What?’ Robert frowned, pulling off a sliver of ham and putting it in his mouth.

‘How does he know that you need to give me up to him in order to beat him. How does he know that? That’s not in our Prophecy, is it? Nor in anything else we’ve found.’

Robert’s chewing slowed, then, abruptly, he got up from the table, barely hiding a wince, and went back to his bed. He rummaged under it for a moment, bringing out a small bag with something heavy in it, and a slim leather pouch. He brought both back to the table. ‘Bring that lamp a little closer, will you?’

As Jenn moved the lamp towards him, he sat again, opening up the pouch to draw forth a piece of thick parchment, folded twice. He opened this and drew it close to the light.

‘Robert? What is it?’ If she’d promised no more lies, then he had to start telling her what he was doing – and why.

As though he’d heard her thoughts, he tilted the paper further towards the lamp. ‘It’s something Osbert gave me when I went to Marsay.’

‘After you found the Calyx?’

‘Well, after I found the book which turned out to be the Calyx, yes. He’d told me about rumours of a Prophecy that Kenrick had asked him to circulate about the city. He didn’t elaborate, but it was obvious it was the same Prophecy. He was sure Kenrick had somehow stolen it from Nash and asked Osbert to translate it for him. I’d forgotten all about it until now.’

‘Can you read it?’

Robert’s frown deepened. His mouth formed words as he read, but he shook his head twice, closed his eyes a moment and tilted his head back, as though he were remembering something. Then he put the paper back on the table and used his finger to trace each word. ‘If this is the original that Osbert translated from, then it’s incomplete. Nash must have other sources to fill this in.’

‘What does that say?’

‘The language is very old, one I’ve seen only infrequently. This also seems to be a fragment of something larger, but I can’t tell what. It mentions things like
Angel
and
Prophecy, Bonding
and
eternity. Ally and Enemy
, and
dire consequences
. To be honest, I could rearrange them to suit a dozen meanings.’

‘But?’

‘But already knowing the Prophecy, I’m afraid it doesn’t tell us anything new.’ He dropped the paper and ran his hands through his hair. ‘I’ve sent Patric to his death, I know it. But it seemed so possible that he would find something of use. Instead, I’ve just wasted the life of a good friend. Serin’s blood, I only—’

Jenn left her seat and moved around behind him. Hesitating only a moment, she put her hands on his shoulders and pressed a little, massaging the tight muscles there. A heartbeat later, he was leaning back into her, his sigh barely audible, but enough to encourage her.

Then his hand came up to capture one of hers. He kissed the back of it, then turned in his seat, wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his face against her belly.

She almost wept with relief, but instead, she drew in a breath to gather the strength she needed. When he spoke, his voice was muffled, but he didn’t lift his head.

‘I need to put a door on this room, don’t I?’

‘I think that would be a good idea. On a few other caves too.’

A pause then and Robert lifted his head and set her back a little. His green eyes were serious, but no longer dejected. ‘We also need to do something permanent about the Key.’

‘Permanent?’ The very idea terrified her. She was still joined to it; maybe Robert had forgotten that.

‘Yes, to protect it when I’m not here. Otherwise, I’m just as trapped as—’

‘As I am?’ Jenn removed his hands from her waist and returned to her own seat. This was not a subject she could trust herself on, not when he was so close and she so needful of him. Not when he was talking about the Key. ‘So you don’t mind
me
being trapped and tied to the Key, so long as you’re not, is that it?’

Robert rolled his eyes and spread his hands on the table. ‘Look, we need to protect the Key one way or the other. Once that’s done, I don’t see any reason why you can’t leave it behind the way you did at the Enclave.’

‘But you’d rather I stayed here.’

‘Out of Nash’s way, yes. Do you blame me?’

‘After he’s told both of us that the only way you can beat him is to give me up to him?’

‘Oh, and you think I should?’ Robert rose to his feet even as his voice rose. ‘You think I should trust
his
word in this? Do you honestly think he’d willingly give me the one clue I needed to defeat him?’

‘Considering how little credence you’re giving it, I wouldn’t be
at all surprised if he did. After all, he would
expect
you not to believe him.’

‘And with reason. The Prophecy doesn’t support such a suggestion—’

‘That you know of—’

‘And how, in the name of Serin, could my handing you over to him help any of us?’ Robert pushed his fists onto the table and leaned over her. ‘Unless … unless you
want
to go.’

Jenn sprang to her feet. ‘Damn it, Robert, don’t you dare!’

‘He said you’re his Ally.’

‘Robert, I’m warning you—’

‘And you stopped me at Shan Moss. I could have ended it then, but you stopped me.’ His eyes bored into her, but his face showed his fear, and through her anger, she could see clearly how hard it was, for him to finally ask the questions which had plagued him for almost nine years.

She could have tried to explain, but nine years down the line, none of it seemed to make sense any more. Except—

‘You were about to use the Word. You would have killed yourself in the process. I couldn’t … allow that.’

He blinked once, but his gaze didn’t change. He simply straightened up. ‘And I have no guarantee you won’t do something like that again.’

She caught in a breath of surprise then, but she couldn’t look away as he continued, ‘You forced me to accept the Prophecy, to admit to myself that somewhere along the line, I might have to … to destroy you in order to save Lusara. Well, Jenny, if I have to accept that, then you must allow me the privilege of sacrificing my own life for the same reason. If you want us to be in this together, you have no choice.’

Jenn felt tears pricking at the back of her eyes, but she refused to acknowledge them. ‘No matter what I say, you won’t trust me, will you? Whatever you do to protect the Key, you’ll make sure it means I have to stay here with it. You’ll shut me out again, just as you’ve always done, after you promised that we—’

He almost broke then, his hands reaching out for her – but then he stopped, dropping his arms to his sides. He turned away and picked up the other bag. He held it in his hands a moment, and changed the subject completely. ‘I think we might have enough information and enough talent here to create the kind of barrier the Key had around the Goleth. It won’t need to be as big, nor as powerful, as the caves will provide some natural protection. But we’ll need everyone to participate.’ He paused, placing the bag back on the table.

‘What’s that?’ Jenn asked levelly.

‘This is the orb Kenrick was going to use with Helen’s blood. I took it from him to make sure he didn’t try something similar again.’

Jenn gasped, glaring at the bag. ‘An orb? Like the ones Nash uses to regenerate?’

‘Yes,’ Robert said, his fingers lingering on the bag. ‘It’s made of the same material as the Key. As far as I can tell, the Cabal used orbs to transform power from one source to another. Nash has his absorb the blood of sorcerers, then he takes the power from the orb.’