Lord of the Shadows

Chapter 1 Neris Veran was waiting as Tia climbed the goat path up to his cave overlooking the pirate settlement of Mil. His eyes were bright and he was unnaturally alert, a sure sign he'd recently taken another dose of poppy-dust. He must have been waiting for her since he spied her crossing the bay. It was raining, but it didn't seem to bother the madman. His thin shirt was soaked, his ragged, unkempt hair plastered to his head. "Where's Dirk?" he asked as soon as she stepped onto the rocky ledge. "Can't we go inside, Neris?" "Where's Dirk?" he repeated stubbornly. "And why is everybody suddenly back in Mil?" Tia glanced over her shoulder through the rain at the ships anchored below them. It was an unusual sight, all the pirate ships in port at the same time. She hadn't thought Neris would realize it, though. "Let's go inside, Neris," she insisted. "I'm not going to stand out here in the rain being interrogated by you." "It's only water," Neris said, turning his face upward. He let the rain fall on his closed eyes for a few moments, and then he looked back at Tia and grinned. "You're always complaining I don't wash often enough." "Come on, Neris," she urged. "You'll catch your death if you stay out here." "How do you know?" Tia hurried across the ledge. He turned to watch her sheltering in the entrance of the cave, looking quite irritated. "You row across here in a downpour and that's perfectly all right for you, but if I stand in it, I'm being foolish! Suppose I want to catch my death? Suppose I'm too cowardly to take my own life so I'm standing here in the rain, tempting fate, daring her to take me?" Tia sighed impatiently. There was no reasoning with him when he started asking questions like that. "Did you want to hear about Dirk or not?" she called to him over the steady patter of raindrops, hoping that would entice him to come in out of the rain. She didn't wait for his answer. Instead, shivering a little in her wet clothes, Tia hurried over to the small fire in the cave and began to coax it back to life. "So where is Dirk?" Neris asked her again as he stepped into the cave, shaking his head like a dog, showering everything within reach with a fine spray of raindrops. "In Avacas," Tia replied shortly as she tended the fire. "He's joined the Shadowdancers." Neris didn't reply. Tia turned to look at him. "Did you hear what I said? Dirk Provin has betrayed us. He's joined Belagren and Antonov. He made a deal with the High Priestess, handed me over to them as part of it, Neris, just to save his own stupid neck." Neris nodded, walked to the bed and sat down, oblivious to the fact that he was soaking the bed with his wet clothes. "He betrayed me without so much as a flicker of remorse, Neris." Her father's expression was thoughtful, rather than upset. He was taking the news far better than she anticipated. Where was the rage? The feelings of grief and torment over Dirk's unconscionable betrayal? Tia had felt little else since Omaxin, when she'd heard Dirk inform the High Priestess Belagren that he was ready and willing to join her. "Aren't you going to say something?" "I'd like some tea." "I meant about Dirk." "I know. But I'd still like some tea. What did you do?" "When he betrayed me? I shot him." "Well, you never did have much of a sense of humor." "Neris! This is nothing to joke about! He sent a message to Reithan. He told him he was going to tell Antonov the route through the delta." "That would be logical." "Logical! Are you--" Tia was going to ask: Are you crFallon, Jennifer is the author of 'Lord of the Shadows' with ISBN 9780553586701 and ISBN 055358670X.