Well of Tears (Empath Book 3) (6 page)

“And what do you know of men like him?”

“He’s not the first swordmaster I’ve met. He
reminded me of Under, and my childhood. Back when the nights were
my own, and my life was uncomplicated."

Eden closed his eyes at those last words, and
Quinn went to him. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry didn’t come and see you
first. What do you need from me? This is happening to us both. We
don’t have long together, and I’m a fool to be ignoring you.”

Eden snaked his arms around her waist, though
the gesture was slow and reluctant. He rested his head on top of
hers, and took a deep breath. Quinn laid the side of her head
against his chest, listening to the rhythmic beating of his heart.
Eden wasn’t calm. No wonder, with the conversation he’d walked in
to.

Eden wasn’t a fool—they both knew that he’d
eventually have to cede to his father’s wishes. But he agreed with
Ross. He wanted to take the happiness available to him in the time
he had it. Quinn had been the first person Eden had voluntarily
loved, and he wasn’t ready to let her go just because his father
was demanding a marriage.

“Come on, Quinn, let’s go to bed.”

“She hasn’t eaten yet, Eden.”

“I’m a lord again now. All I do is say the
word and someone will come running. You’re not a chamberlain
anymore, Ross. You don’t need to keep looking after her.”

“You might be right about my title, but
you’re wrong about one thing: I’ll never stop looking after her.
Whether she likes it or not, some people in her life are here to
stay. D’you hear that Quinn?"

Quinn smiled. “That’s one of the nicest
things I’ve ever heard in my life."

Pax stood in the
council hall, his arms folded and his gaze running down the table.
The remaining members of the council were seated, and he had their
full attention.

“Things are changing much quicker than we
anticipated. We need to discuss how we to proceed.”

“Faster? How so?” Mai, the baroness of the
small isle of Immer, sounded tense. This was not unlike her; she
was the most cautious of his councillors, and therefore his
favourite. Pax did not appreciate rash actions, which had always
made Sammah a difficult brother to deal with.

“I’ve received more messages. Both Sammah and
Shiver escaped during Sammah’s rebellion in Everfell. Sammah is
using glamour to control the throne. Shiver is rallying lords
around him to retaliate."

“Isn’t this what we wanted? Surely this can
be only be a good thing.”

“In part. The main problem is Sammah being in
control of the throne.”

“
I still don
’t see
how that changes our plans? It is going to be Shiver versus Vance.
Sammah might be controlling the king, but ostensibly, it is still
the king in charge. If Sammah is hurt during the conflict then so
be it. What a perfect excuse for us to be able to declare war
ourselves. In the meantime, I suggest we just watch them and see
what happens.”

“And what if Shiver decides that Sammah is
truly the force behind this, as he well knows he is, and declares
war on us instead? What if he manages to unite all of the
provinces, and the baron loses what scant allies he has? Sammah
won’t be able to hold a city the size of Everfell against all of
the provinces. It will be a rout, and then the full force of Shiver
and his men will be turned our way. That’s the last thing we
want.”

“
But I don
’t see
how we can change this now. What you suggest we do?"

“Sammah is panicking. He has sent us messages
requesting assistance. Soldiers. He only has two lords on his side,
and that’s not because they are naturally his allies. They are
struggling to gather their own men. I don’t know how strong his
glamour is, but it’s clearly not enough. I suggest we decline his
request, and we send a messenger to Shiver letting him know that
this is not Sha’sek’s fight. We withdraw all support and all
interest in Everfell until this is over."

“You just sent the empath over there. Did you
not anticipate this?”

“I know! It’s a decision I am regretting, but
it’s not something I can change. We had these plans before we
realised what Quinn could do, and we can achieve what we need
without her. Remember what happened when we decided to put our
trust and hopes in Nerren? That was a disaster. We need to stop
relying on their kind for a future. Quinn is the last of them, and
I doubt we’ll ever be able to breed her. We need to start thinking
outside of controlling people by their minds, and instead, start
controlling by the blade.”

“We’ve never had enough people to take the
mainland.” Mai pointed out.

“When the men of Everfell have finished
killing each other, it’s going to be easy to pick up those
pieces.”

“And what if Sammah wins?”

“That is a prospect I am not considering."
Pax took a long breath, trying to settle himself. He had considered
Sammah keeping hold of the Everfell throne, but he’d already
measured the chances of it. It was such a slim likelihood, he had
stopped pursuing it. No; the most likely outcome currently was that
the men of Sevenspells would tear through Vance’s defence. There
would be casualties along the way, and Shiver would lose enough
souls that it would be easy for Pax to declare war, and call a
negotiation with the new king. In those negotiations, Shiver would
be killed. Without their focal point leader, the rest of the lords
would surrender. The council would be moved to the mainland, his
loyal colleagues placed in charge of provinces. Pax would take the
throne in Everfell. His brother would be killed, if he wasn’t dead
already.

“I have weighed the outcomes. Baron Sammah
will not survive this.”

“We have trusted the accuracy of your
judgement for a long time now, Baron Pax. When are we going to
start realising some good in return for all of the risks we are
taking?"

“Are you questioning my gift?”

“I’m questioning the longevity we have in
fulfilling your vision.”

That was a very clever way to answer, and Pax
had to applaud Mai’s discretion. “Wars can be, unfortunately, drawn
out. Don’t think of it as waiting; think of it as Sha’sek having
more time to regroup. Our enemies will begin expending themselves,
and soon. In the meantime, we can carry on growing and training. As
their men die, ours will be born. All we need to do is wait, and
they will be destroyed.”

“And the empath? She seemed different to
Nerren. She is reluctant to use her abilities, despite their depth.
If she has survived the Sighs again, and she somehow negotiates
herself through this war, what you going to do with her?”

“If she somehow negotiates the Sighs again,
and she survives that war—especially a confrontation with Sammah,
which is by the way inevitable, then we will see how broken she is.
She is not a strong woman, not mentally. She’s been kept isolated,
and we have her best friend. She doesn’t trust anyone, and now she
doesn’t have a healer with her to be able to stretch the full range
of her abilities. If she starts trying to manipulate emotion, she
could kill herself. That of course would solve everything for us.
Quinn’s chances for coming out of this alive, match Sammah’s. That
is an eventuality I will tackle if it occurs.”

“Do you think she’ll ever find out who her
father is?”

“
I don
’t expect to
live long enough to find that out, no."

“Is this all? Shall we move to vote?”

This was an agreeable end to the conversation
for Pax. “Yes. Sha’sek to withdraw all support from Baron Sammah.
Sha’sek to withdraw all interest in the affairs of the men of
Everfell, and return the Lord Lynton to his cousin. All those in
favour?”

Eleven hands went up. Pax folded his arms
across his chest. He had weighed the situation. He was never
wrong.

Quinn lay on her
back, staring up at the blue cloth of the drooping tent roof. Her
head was nestled in the crook of Eden’s arm, his hand resting
around her. He stroked her skin softly. She didn’t want to move,
let alone leave. “Your tent is more luxurious than the room I grew
up in.”

“Sammah should have given you more. He is a
noble—you were his children.”

“There were so many of us. I don’t think he
would have parted with the gold to keep us all like that. I think
he resented paying for it for himself.”

“How many of you do you think there are in
Everfell? I can’t believe there’s that many orphans out there.”

Quinn thought darkly about the mute
confessions of murder she’d taken on her first crossing of the Sea
of Sighs, before sending a mercenary to his death. “
I don
’t think we started out as orphans. I think
Sammah made it that way, so he could take us.”

“Even with you? Wouldn’t one of your parents
have been like you?”

“One of them, maybe, but they wouldn’t have
to be
there
to be my parent. I could have been a bastard. It
wouldn’t have taken much for Sammah to take me from a chambermaid
in Yender, struggling to survive.”

“I hadn’t thought of that. Life isn’t as
straightforward as it seems, is it?”

Quinn arched her head around, looking at him.
Stubble peppered his chin, making him seem older than his eighteen
summers. Livid bruising still stained his face, making him look
fierce, but not frightening. His eyes were fixed on the roof, too,
and his breathing came slow and even. Eden was third in line to the
seat of Sevenspells; now, he was third in line for the throne. She
was an empath from Sha’sek, a collection of city states that Shiver
of Sevenspells appeared determined to obliterate. Quinn smiled
sadly. Her life had never been simple, but with Eden in it, it was
positively chaotic. She pushed herself up and kissed his cheek
softly. She knew that she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“What are you going to say to your father,
when you get home?”

“I’ll have to see what kind of welcome there
is for me, first. I’ve been gone for, what, two weeks, and so much
has changed. My father will be interested in what I have to say
about Sha’sek.”

“Are you going to tell him about Pax’s plans?
To keep out of the war?”

“I am. I think it might give us a chance to
delay the war.”

"You think that Shiver will delay the war to
help Pax?"

"No, I think that Shiver will think twice
about raising his sword against Vance when he knows that Sammah is
behind it. With Baron Pax waiting to pick through the bones on the
battlefield, it gives us a perfect excuse to make Shiver stay his
sword. He'd be giving Sha'sek what they wanted, no matter what he
did.”

"And what then? He just sits and waits for
one of the barons to attack?"

"I'm not sure, but that's up to my father.
All I can do is give him the information I have. There's no point
or reason for me to hide anything from him. That would achieve
nothing."

"Do you find it tiring, trying to please all
of these people all of the time?"

"I do. It's exhausting, Quinn. I can't even
begin to tell you how many times I've considered just walking away
from all of this. I'm not likely to inherit; why should I
care?"

"You've always cared; it's one of the things
that first attracted me to you."

“
I don
’t think I’ve
ever heard of a lady picking a man of Sevenspells for his dashing
personality before. I’m being serious, though. I would have gone
with you. In Sha’sek? If you’d have said to go, I would have done
it.”

“And not anymore?”

Eden’s silence was enough of an answer.
Quinn’s heart sank. Only one thing had changed between them since
Farn.

“You can talk to me about it?” Quinn said
quietly. “that would be better, for both of us. We can’t hide our
feelings from each other anymore.”

“That’s the problem. I’m not sure what my
feelings
are
, Quinn.”

“What does that mean?”

“Have you…your new ability. Have you used it
on me? Have you changed the way I’ve felt about something?”

Here was the crux of the matter. Quinn could
see this conversation happening with every man she ever met in her
life; Ross was so determined that she’d meet another. The way this
relationship was going, Quinn wasn’t so sure she
wanted
to
fall in love with anyone else. “No, Eden. I haven’t changed your
emotions. Not towards me or anyone.”

“But you could, if you wanted?”

“I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to.”

“And what about something I already felt?
Have you given my feelings more…
fire?
”

Quinn thought back to the night on the ship.
Yes. She had. Guilt flamed her cheeks. Could she lie to him, again?
No, she couldn’t. “Yes, I have.”

Eden’s breathing sped up. He couldn’t hide
the reactions of his body to her words. Quinn didn’t cheat this
time. She wanted to listen to him and have a natural response to
their conversation. Her abilities were clouding everything, and
this had been the first thing in her life that was clear. Enough
was enough; she would never use her abilities on Eden again. “When
did you do it? When?”

“On the crossing. After your fight with
Tarik. I was scared. I’m going to lose you Eden. I felt like we’ve
had everything, and nothing. You arrived in Everfell, and I’d never
met anyone like you. You wanted me—just me—and you were the first
person in my life that had ever made me feel alive. I fell for you
so hard, and then we were ripped apart. Then you came to Sha’sek,
and I thought that was for me, too, but it wasn’t. The part of you
that serves your father, helped make that decision. Now, you’re
going to be married off to some overdressed court-dweller, and I’ll
likely never see you again. So for that night, I just wanted to
know what it felt like to have all of you. I…I’m sorry.”