They opened the door, threw him inside and shut it behind him. Jehal sat up and rubbed his bruises. A pair of servants stared at him, wide-eyed like startled rabbits, then scurried away. As the door slammed closed, twilight enveloped him. The air was hazy with smoke despite the height of the room. Shafts of sunlight pierced the walls and lit patches of fire on the floor; everywhere else danced in flickering shadow.
'Hello Prince Jehal. Please don't get up. I'll shoot you if you do.'
Jehal froze. The voice came from off to one side. Shezira. He turned his head, and there she was, sitting half hidden by one of the massive columns that vanished into the vaulted gloom above. She was holding a crossbow, a large one, calmly, steadily pointing it at him.
His heart began to pound. How much does she know?
'The trouble with the condemned,' he said, slowly and softly, 'is that they have very little to lose. You appear to have been expecting me, Your Holiness.'
'Did you think I was entirely powerless in here? The Night Watchman let slip that you would be joining me this morning. He also let slip a crossbow and a single bolt. Very careless of him, don't you think?'
'Very.' An acidic smile settled on Jehal's face. 'I appear to have been well and truly… expected.'
'He must hate you very much, Jehal. I know he hates me. He thinks I killed Hyram. I don't imagine he much cares which one of us dies. He probably hopes for both of us.'
'Did he tell you that I was conspiring with him to help you escape?' Jehal frowned. 'Trying to conspire with him, at any rate. I wonder how long he pondered my proposal before he ran to Zafir.'
'I've heard that you conspired a good deal. I'm left to wonder how much of it is true.'
'Quite a lot of it, I don't doubt.' Jehal shrugged. 'I do so enjoy a good conspiring.'
'As I would enjoy hearing about them.'
Jehal snorted. 'What, so we can pass the time with some civilised conversation and then you kill me? Why not do us both a favour and get it over with quickly.'
'Killing you is clearly what I'm supposed to do, but I am not inclined to be cooperative. If at all possible, I mean to shoot you somewhere painful and leave you to live as a cripple. That would be much more satisfying.'
'Pity you wouldn't be here to watch though, eh. But kill me now and three of the nine realms will be controlled by your daughters, all baying for war and revenge. I doubt Zafir would survive for long. I'm surprised you didn't get straight on and do it.'
'I'm not much interested in a war, Jehal.'
Jehal couldn't help but laugh. 'That's what I keep telling them. Although…' He shrugged and sighed. 'Not being interested in a war doesn't seem to have done me much good.' Keep talking. Talking was good. Talking wasn't shooting.
Shezira almost smiled at him, although the crossbow didn't flinch. 'I was under the impression that you being here to have this conversation had rather more to do with Princess Lystra. It is a little difficult to decide whether she'll live longer with you dead or with you alive. You understand, I hope, that she is my only consideration in how I deal with you.'
'Ah.' Jehal let that sink in along with all the implications that came with it. 'Yes. Unfortunate thing that. I suppose you realise that Zafir had a certain amount of help getting to where she is. I didn't need to help her seduce Hyram, but I certainly let her steal the potions she gave him. I allied myself with you and made sure Hyram knew about it. Hyram would have had an accident around now. Lystra would have followed a year later. I would have married Zafir and in time I would have succeeded her. That was what we planned, as I'm sure you've already grasped. But Zafir got impatient and I found something in Lystra that I didn't expect, and so here I find myself. That is the extent of my conspiracy, Your Holiness. You can get on with shooting me now if you wish. I should warn you though that you may miss. If you do, why then I think we shall have some fun.' He shifted onto his knees, trying to get more comfortable, at the same time readying himself to spring to his feet. Shezira gave a slight shake of her head.
'You stay sitting exactly where you are. Keep your legs flat on the floor.'
Jehal rolled his eyes. 'If you prefer, Your Holiness, I will lie on my belly. Or on my back, with my feet in the air.'
'As you are will be perfectly adequate.' Shezira rose out of her chair and came slowly towards him, but kept a wary distance, circling around him. 'I didn't push Hyram off his balcony, you know.'
'Yes, I know. I saw.'
'Really?'
'He fell. I've been trying quite hard to convince others of your innocence.'
'Have you now?' Her voice was cold. She didn't believe him, probably didn't believe him about Lystra either. She was prowling around him now. Her hands on the crossbow were as steady as stone, and her eyes… Her eyes showed no forgiveness, no mercy. In the north they called her the Queen of Stone, the Queen of Flint. Jehal had called her that too, behind her back, but now he understood what they really meant. His heart skipped. He bit his lip.
'Were you poisoning him, Jehal?' she asked. Jehal hesitated. If he lied, and she already knew… but he'd undone himself anyway by not answering straight away.
'Yes,' he said.
'And your father?'
This time he was ready. His face twisted into a sneer. 'Everyone seems to think so. Why should I disappoint you all?'
The look she gave him was a queer one, as if he'd somehow answered another question, one that she hadn't asked but one that mattered a great deal more. 'And me, Jehal? Why were you trying to poison me?'
He snorted, surprised. 'You? Why would I poison you? You were no threat to me.' 'I am now.'
'Sadly, my powers of foresight did not predict this little awkwardness. Zafir having me thrown in a dungeon while she had you put to death, yes, I suppose I half expected that. It being this dungeon and my good friend the Night Watchman having left you so wickedly dangerous, that possibility I'm afraid had entirely escaped me.'
'Again, Jehal, why were you trying to poison me? I cannot fathom what you would gain from it, yet I cannot see who else it could be.'
Jehal furrowed his brow and shook his head. What are you talking about, woman? 'Your Holiness, I never have tried to poison you. In actual fact, despite all Hyram's little fantasies, I've murdered remarkably few people. Your daughter, for example. Notably not murdered, however politically useful it might have been. You. Also not murdered. And I can promise you, Queen Shezira, that when I aim to make someone dead, they die. I helped Zafir steal the Speaker's Ring from you, but poison you? No. I would have been quite happy for you to go back to Outwatch and fester. I've never tried to have you harmed in any way; in fact, since Hyram stupidly fell off his own balcony, I've done everything I can to keep you alive. Not out of any love for you, you understand, but, believe it or not, for love of the realms. Of everything. Of life. Zafir doesn't just want your head. She's going to execute King Valgar as well, and then she's going to move on to all three of your daughters. I'm trying to stop her.' He looked ruefully around the Tower of Dusk. 'Not with as much success as I'd hoped, it would seem.'
Shezira snorted and shook her head. 'Why should I believe a word you say? Hyram called you a viper, and he wasn't wrong. We all should have listened to him.'
'Your daughter Jaslyn sits on your throne. Almiri rules in Evenspire. With Zafir they will take all the realms into flames. You don't need me to tell you that.'
'Jaslyn has Hyrkallan to guide her.' For a moment, Jehal wondered how the queen could possibly know that Hyrkallan had abandoned the Red Riders and returned north. Then he realised that she probably didn't know that the Red Riders even existed. 'Resides, she cares more (or her dragons that she does for me.' A touch of bitterness tinged Shezira's voice now. 'She won't go to war, not for me. The only person she truly cares about is her little sister, your Lystra. Keep her alive and safe and Jaslyn will stay in her eyries.'
'Lystra is carrying my heir.'
'So I've heard. Another reason to keep her alive.' 'I'm trying very hard to do so.'
Shezira nodded her head. 'Good. Unfortunately, I rather fear for my daughter after she's given you what you want. So let me give you something that is both help and encouragement.' And with that, Shezira pointed the crossbow between Jehal's legs and fired.
The force knocked him back across the polished marble floor; and then came the pain, unbearable, burning, blinding, shrieking pain that seemed to run like liquid fire along every nerve and bone.
'Zafir will have to find another lover now,' said Shezira, although Jehal could hardly hear her over the roaring in his head. He couldn't see anything either. 'We are truly tied together now, blood to blood, Prince Jehal. If my bloodline dies, so does yours.'
The roaring sounds, Jehal realised, were his own screams.