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"I don't wish to be disturbed right now," she said, the words barely reaching Crese
"No," Crese
D'Pera faced her again, a hard expression on her handsome face. "Meaning what?"
"I think you know exactly what I mean, N'Qlae."
The woman glared at her for several seconds. "I think you should go," she said at last, "before you get yourself in more trouble than you can handle."
Crese
But back in the Forelands Crese
Crese
"You think you're brave," D'Pera said icily. "You stand there, brazen, showing me no respect at all, and you think that I won't hurt you because your man is a Weaver. You and he are exactly alike. You show contempt for all Fal'Borna. You do your best to humiliate my husband. I should kill you. You deserve no less."
"You're wrong about us," Crese
She stopped, breathing hard. Just a short while before, she had warned Grinsa about provoking the a'laq. Now she'd done much the same thing with his wife. What was it about these two that brought out the worst in them?
Crese
After a few more harrowing seconds, the pressure on her throat vanished. Crese
"You may have some courage after all," the woman said.
"Thank you, N'Qlae."
"What did you think would happen here today?" D'Pera asked. "Did you think I'd…?" She pressed her lips in a thin line, looking away briefly before facing Crese
Crese
D'Pera looked away. "You're wrong." She kept her voice low. Crese
"Besh felt a second presence in his mind. Someone forced him to say those things about making Grinsa and Q'Daer sick, and about the protective spell not being real."
"Of course he'd say that," the n'qlae said, still not looking at her. The words were just what Crese
"I was struck by what you said before, when Grinsa asked you if Besh had responded truthfully to every question. You said that as long as your magic controlled him he couldn't tell a lie."
"Yes. That's right."
"But as soon as the a'laq began to use his magic on Besh, you weren't controlling him anymore, were you?"
"The a'laq did no such thing."
Crese
For a long time D'Pera kept silent as well. She began to fidget, clearly uncomfortable under Crese
"What is it you want from me?" she asked.
"I want you to tell me what really happened."
"Why? You can't save them, you know. The Mettai have made themselves enemies of the Fal'Borna."
"Not these Mettai. These men have done nothing wrong. They saved my husband's life, and Q'Daer's, too. They created a spell that will save us all. You know this is true, regardless of what E'Menua made Besh say."
"You don't understand the Southlands. You haven't been here long enough. You haven't grown up in the shadow of the Blood Wars."
"I understand it better than you think. The Forelands had its share of trouble before Grinsa and I left. And if the Eandi king who decided my fate had thought as you do, I'd be dead."
D'Pera shook her head and stared off toward the western horizon, where a smudge of rain had appeared just below the dark clouds.
"You can't save them," she said quietly. "No one can. E'Menua has made up his mind, and that's the end of it."
"You can save them, N'Qlae. You may be the only one who has that power now. The a'laq is your husband and you love him. I understand that, as well. But he used you, and you let him. And unless you do something to stop him, two i
The n'qlae looked at her, her expression bleak. Crese
Thoughts swarmed through Q'Daer's mind like flies in the middle of the Growing. He should have been pleased. The Mettai had admitted that he was an enemy of the Fal'Borna, proving that Q'Daer had been right to doubt him, and that Grinsa had been a fool to place his trust in the dark-eye sorcerers. The rift between the Forelander and E'Menua had never been greater, which meant that Q'Daer's status as the a'laq's most trusted Weaver, aside from D'Pera of course, was secure. In every way, the day had been a good one for him.
Yet he felt sick to his stomach. He hadn't realized it until the moment when E'Menua began questioning the old Mettai man, but he wanted to believe that the dark-eye sorcerers had saved his life. He wanted to go to sleep at night secure in the knowledge that their spell would protect every Fal'Borna on the plain from the curse of the Mettai witch, which remained a threat to them even though the woman herself was dead. Most of all, he wanted to believe that the a'laq had allowed the Mettai man to speak the truth. He wanted to he certain that the leader of his sept hadn't used his magic to make the man lie. And he wasn't sure of this. Not at all.