“I am just a soldier.”
“No. You’re better at these games even than Freda. She was right about you. I thought she was crazy, but I see it now. You are a threat to Locke. And to our father. Maybe to all of us.”
“What did she say?” I asked again.
“I guess it can’t hurt.” He sighed, looked away. “You and Locke are going to be at odds. And you will win.”
“And our father?”
“Him, too.”
“She saw all this in her Trumps?”
“Yes.”
“Rot and nonsense.”
“It’s not!”
“You’re saying exactly what you think I’d like to hear,” I snapped. “I’m supposed to arrive in Juniper and lay waste to all before me? No, it’s impossible. I may have ambitions, but they don’t lie in that direction. Right now, my only goal is to help our father as much as I can.”
“But Freda saw—”
“I don’t care! I don’t believe in fortune-telling. I told Freda as much.”
“Freda’s not some carnival witch, scrabbling for pennies!” He seemed almost hurt at the suggestion. “She’s been trained since childhood to see emerging patterns in Chaos. It’s a great science.”
“And I’m a great skeptic.”
“Well, you shouldn’t be. It’s what got you here.” He shrugged, sighed, looked away again. Clearly I had confused him.
“Go on.”
“I wasn’t supposed to say anything about it, but Locke already hates you.” He hesitated. “Locke didn’t want Dad to bring you to Juniper. If he hadn’t been so vocal about it, Dad would have fetched you here many years ago.”
Years ago… so that’s why Dworkin abandoned me, I thought. New pieces to the puzzle of my life suddenly fit neatly into place. Locke, not Dworkin, had kept me stranded and alone in Ilerium all these years.
Although I didn’t enjoy making quick decisions about people, I found myself disliking Locke. Hating him, even. He had given my enemy a face… a decidedly human face.
Could Locke have sent Ivinius the assassin-barber to my room? It seemed entirely possible. It wouldn’t be the first time brother killed brother to secure a throne.
“What made Dad change his mind about bringing me here?” I asked.
“Freda did. She saw you in her cards. She told Dad we needed you here, and now, or you would die… and with you would die our hopes of winning the war.”
Convenient enough, I thought. She could predict anything she wanted and who would know the difference? Perhaps she felt she needed another ally. Who better than me? A soldier to counter Locke, a strong arm to do her bidding, one forever loyal to her because she had prophesied that I would one day take over.
Still, she had gotten one thing right: if not for Dworkin’s timely rescue, I would be dead in Ilerium right now.
“All right,” I said, “I have to ask. What is this war everyone keeps mentioning? Against whom are we fighting? And how am I supposed to help?”
“I don’t know, exactly. I don’t think anyone knows—it’s been all sneak attacks so far.” He swallowed. “Freda said you held the key to saving our family.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
I threw back my head and laughed. “What rot! And you fell for it?”
“No!” Aber shook his head. “It’s the truth, brother. Freda saw it… and everything she sees comes true. That’s what really has Locke scared.”
My breath caught in my throat. Aber really believed it, I saw… believed in this prophecy of Freda’s. It sounded like some soothsayer’s trick to me, so vague as to be useless for anything—except manipulating me to her ends. And yet… I had seen enough magic and miracles in the last day to make me wonder if I might not be wrong.
“Well,” I finally said, “I do hope it’s true. But I don’t have any way to know—and neither does anyone else. Is that enough to make Locke hate me? The fact that Freda thinks I can help save the whole family?”
“No.” He hesitated again.
“There’s something else,” I said. “Spill it.”
“Dad has always spoken fondly of you—perhaps too fondly—Oberon this, and Oberon that; how great a swordsman you were becoming. Locke has always been jealous. Dad never talked about him that way when he was growing up in the Courts of Chaos, as he’s quick to remind us all.”
I said, “And now that I’m actually here… now that Locke’s greatest rival is flesh and bone instead of tall tales around the fireplace… and now that Freda has predicted that I’ll save the whole family instead of him… Locke’s feeling threatened. Almost desperately so.”
“He is the first-born son, after all,” Aber said, almost apologetically. “But Dad could easily name another heir… one he likes better… you.”
Me! That’s what all this was about, I realized. Freda believed I stood a chance of inheriting the family titles and lands, whatever they were. Perhaps she’d read it in her cards. Perhaps Dworkin had somehow given her the impression he favored me. Or perhaps she hated Locke so much that she’d throw in with any promising rival who happened along.
It didn’t matter. The impossibility of it all struck me then, and I laughed out loud.
Aber stared at me like I’d gone mad.
I said, “It’s unlikely that I will inherit anything.”
“Titles often pass to the strongest, not necessarily the first-born.”
I shook my head. “I’m hardly the strongest. I have no friends or allies. I don’t know anyone here. And I have no interest in titles.”
“Maybe that’s what makes you dangerous. Look at it this way. Locke’s never been Dad’s favorite. He knows it. But as the first-born son, he’s always had advantages over you. For one, he’s always been here, helping Dad. For another, he’s already got a large and incredibly loyal army behind him.”
I raised my eyebrows. “And I’m just supposed to walk in and take both of these advantages away from him? How?”
“Well, you are here.” Aber shrugged almost apologetically. “Late is better than never. And you do have military experience… more than Locke, probably, considering you’ve been a career soldier. Dad’s told us about the battles you’ve fought against those you call hell-creatures. The army here demands a strong leader… an experienced soldier. And since you’re the one apparently destined to win this war for our side, as everyone here already knows, well… why not you?”
Why not indeed, I thought. No wonder Locke hated and feared me. There is nothing quite as powerful as a legend… and apparently my own talents had grown with every telling.
Add to that Freda’s prophecy…