Read Online The Crystal Chalice (Book 1) by R.J. Grieve - Free Book Online Page A

her.
     When she felt steadier, she asked: “Would you really
have destroyed the Prince’s army?”
     “Why would I not?”
     “Because you would have left Eskendria completely
vulnerable to attack from the Turog.”
     He shrugged, unimpressed. “Eskendria means nothing
to me.”
     “But what about your own people? If Eskendria falls,
all the other little kingdoms will fall. None of them have the strength to
stand against the evil horde. And when they are all gone, what of you? Do you
think you will survive here in your mountain fastness, immune from attack? The
Turog hate you more than anyone. They call you Zardes-kur, the Executioner, the
one who delivers death. If Eskendria had fallen as a result of your actions, do
you think you would have survived?”
     She noticed, for the first time, that the mocking
sneer had gone. He looked a little tired.   “Eskendria would not have
fallen. In truth your Prince was in no danger. You are not the only one who can
deceive. You are not the only one to attempt to present a lie as the truth. The
only difference is that I am more successful than you.”
     Suddenly her mind made an intuitive leap. “You were
bluffing. You hadn’t enough men to hold all the passes. If the Prince had
attacked you, he could have broken through.”
     He inclined his head in acknowledgement. “The Prince
showed his inexperience in military command. He should have sent scouts to
check the information he was given. He has yet to learn that all may not be as
it appears.”
     But her eyes were not focused on him, they were
looking at some inward place in which he had no part, and she remarked, almost
to herself: “He went through such agony. Such heartbreak. All because he is an
honest man unused to dealing with deceit. Would to God I could have spared him
that.”
     She looked up in time to see an unpleasant smile
cross Celedorn’s face. “So,” he observed softly, “we have the answer to the
riddle. Allow me to compliment you. You certainly aim high. You were willing to
sacrifice yourself because you actually had the temerity to fall in love with
the heir to the throne of Eskendria. It would be pathetic if it were not so
entertaining.”
      With keen perception he saw that he had hurt her.
To avoid looking at him, she reached for the decanter without asking his
permission and refilled her glass. He made no comment, intrigued to see what
happened next. With courage fortified by the wine she had consumed, she lifted
her glass in a mocking salute. “Permit me to compliment you . You have
made cruelty a fine art.”
     She thought he looked a little stung but it might
just have been the effect of the wine. Everything was getting a little hazy, a
little remote. “For your information,” she continued. “I did not aim that high.
I was always aware of the differences between us. I will never forget that he
is a prince and I am a nobody, without even a past to call my own.”
     “You have had too much wine,” he remarked.
     “I have never been drunk in my life,” she declared
virtuously, then ruined the effect by adding, “That is, what I can remember of
it. If only I could remember more. It has been months now and nothing has come.
I have discovered things about myself, like my ability to read the old
language, but I cannot remember being taught it. Did my father teach me? Do I
have a brother or sister? Do I really come from the Land of Marshes as Relisar
suspects? I would give anything to remember.”
     But with one of those quick mood changes which she
found disconcerting, his cynical gaze had gone and he was staring thoughtfully
into his wine, watching the firelight glimmer blood- red in its depths.
     “It’s strange,” he remarked, without taking his eyes
off his glass. “you would give anything to remember your past and I would give
anything to forget mine.”
     It was the first human thing he had said. The first
thing inconsistent with his image of ruthless cruelty. Yet