Rhylesian started awake.
What was that? Someone calling his name? Now the damned guards were too busy to come into the tent? Annoyed, he climbed from the bed, found his slippers, and stalked to the doorway.
His guards acknowledged him. “Is everything all right?” asked the younger of the two, a strapping man with a build that reminded Rhylesian of his own splendid youth.
“Has anyone come with reports for me?”
“No, sir, not since the one from the Elves.”
That was, what, hours ago? “And no sign of further attacks?”
“No, sir.”
Rhylesian nodded. He could see men riding about the camp, spears at the ready; small fires with more armed men ringed around them; watchmen standing on hastily-erected platforms. We should have been doing this all along. “Very well,” he said at last, retreating into the tent. Just a dream, that’s probably what it was, There’d been enough tonight to give any man dreams. Flipping the doorway to his chamber aside, he headed for the bed.
The crystal skull glowed on the table.
That damned thing. He’d told Marethe to leave it home, but no, she wouldn’t hear of it. Needed it, she said, to see their fate. Well, he hadn’t needed it to see their fate. He knew he’d crush the pathetic little Galeth army the moment he saw it, drawn up in ranks the day they’d met to negotiate. Brave? Hah! Fools, more like it. They were no match for his troops, and they must have known that, too. They were doomed, even with that damned Azgar leading them.
And that was another thing, now that he thought about it. Azgar. How could Marethe and the Elves be so convinced when no one else seemed to notice? She used the skull, then, too, showing him that the Elven prince told the truth. Still, he wondered. No one had seen any of those bastards in centuries, and now one just appeared in the east? It made no sense to him. Either there were more of them hiding somewhere, or Heramor was the only one. He doubted that. When you found one rat, there were always more. So where were they hiding? Galeth shared a border with Angevar, but they also shared one with Dolan and Tysyenne. And no one ever found Azgar there, well, not in Dolan or the Elf lands anyway; no one wanted to go and provoke the Angevarians. Their king was a known sorcerer, and there were enough stories about him to make Rhylesian unwilling to fight with him. A whole line of princes, wiped out and sent back as living dead to spread the word of his power. No, Rhylesian wasn’t going to go bother him. If anything he should thank him, since that slaughter meant his own cadet line gained the throne.
The skull seemed to be following him as he moved. Well, it was supposed to look like that, wasn’t it? Something about it being balanced to react to the slightest touch. Fine. She should have covered it, though, so it wouldn’t be watching him all the time. Almost alive, it looked, or haunted.
Damned thing. She was always fussing over it, too, worried about it getting scratched or broken. Then why in the hells did she leave it out? She should have put it away where it was safe and he didn’t have to see it.
What if – what if he just happened to stumble, and knock it over? And what if – what if it just happened to break when it hit the ground? Sure, she’d be mad, but she’d get over it. She’d find something else to use, maybe a ball or a bowl or something like that, something that didn’t seem to always be watching him.
Slowly he made his way over to the little table. That gold stand was so delicate, so fragile, it would almost certainly break when it fell. Why, yes. All he had to do was knock into it, and down it’d go. Simple. Easy. And he’d be blameless. Hells, it was late, and he went to check on the guard, and coming back in here he tripped. Yeah, he’d had a lot of wine tonight, so what. Oh, that’s what made me clumsy. Sorry about that, really. Yeas I am. I never meant to break that damned thing. No, all I did was trip. Stop crying. Yes, you can get another one. Oh, there aren’t any more? I didn’t know. Really. I thought they were something that you could get from the Elves. Well, I don’t know. Maybe you can use something else. All right, so it won’t be as good. But you can still use it, right? Right?
He laid his hand on the table. It was solid and sturdy, not likely to simply break. So that was it. He’d have to knock the whole thing over.
With a quick kick, he sent the table flying.
MArethe jolted upright. “What was that?”
“I – uh -the table – ”
Rushing from the bed, her gown flying about her, Marethe joined him. “My skull! Where is it?” She forced the lamps into full light. “Rhylesian, help me! I must find it.”
Oh, please, please be broken, please be gone. “I don’t see it anywhere.”
“I have to find it. Where is it?” She frantically pushed aside some curtains. “Help me.”
“Yes, I am.” It is gone, it is really gone, it is dead and it won’t torture me any more. I have won, I have killed it, I am free of it, I am –
“There you are! Are you all right?”
He whipped around.
Marethe sat on the floor, cradling the skull in her lap. She ran her hands over it, frantically searching for damage. “Ohh, you are fine. Help me, my love.”
“Of course.” he extended one large hand, and she hauled herself up, skull clutched close to her breasts.
“I need to put you away before you get hurt.” Still protecting the skull, she retrieved its bag and stand. Marethe made another quick examination of it before she returned it to its box. “What happened?”
“I went to check on the guards, and I guess I tripped when I came in.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“You drank a great deal of wine tonight. You probably should have been more careful.” She sighed. “I suppose that with everything that happened you could not be blamed for that.”
“No. And everyone seems to be on their guard outside.”
“So they are finally doing what they should have been doing all along.”
He sighed. “Well, yeah.”
Marethe set the table upright, slinging the green cloth back over it. “You are all right. And at least my skull wasn’t hurt. I will want to try and use it again tomorrow. I have to learn what they are planning.”
He nodded wearily.
The damned thing had won.