Blood of the Emperor by Tracy Hickman

to find you, learn the truth, and then kill you on the spot.”
    “Again,” Drakis said. “Not feeling any better about this.”
    “But then my obligation changed,” Soen went on. “My own Order determined that
you
were a truth that had to be hidden. Since I knew about you, my old, dear friend the Keeper of our Order determined that both of us needed to be ‘hidden’ well…preferably deep in an unmarked grave far from any possible discovery. So my obligation became to the truth of myself; I was still looking for you but now as a means of proving that I was still loyal to my Order. The only way I could do that was to capture you and bring you back in chains to our Old Keep in the Imperial City.”
    “This is why elves are not known for their diplomacy skills,” Drakis said. The conversation was absurd. “Why are you telling me this?”
    “Because since I came looking for you, I’ve come to learn a new truth,” Soen said simply.
    “Please do
not
tell me that you’ve become a
believer
in me,” Drakis scoffed.
    “No, not at all.”
    Drakis blinked, the tip of his sword dropping slightly. “What then?”
    “I don’t think you are the Drakis of the Prophecy,” Soen said, shifting his Matei staff from the right to the left. “I don’t believe this prophecy has any power at all. From what I have learned along the way,
you
don’t believe it either.”
    “Then why bother with me?”
    “Because, as I think you already know, it doesn’t matter what you or I think,” Soen shrugged casually. “What matters is what that
army
outside this warehouse thinks. What matters is what all the pilgrims in Willow Vale think, as well as the thousands that even now are swelling their ranks each day. What matters is what the Keeper of the Iblisi thinks and, for that matter, what the Emperor and his Legions think. Most importantly, what matters is what Nordesia, Ephindria, Chaenandria and Aeria think.”
    “Aeria?” Drakis shook his head. “The dwarves are gone—utterly destroyed. I was there.”
    “Driven from their strongholds? Certainly,” Soen nodded. “But I believe they are still there, deep within the mountain, waiting…waiting for someone or something to unite them.”
    “And you think that the dwarves will rise up again and the entire Rhonas Empire will collapse,” Drakis’ eyes remained fixed on the elf, “because of some bedtime story?”
    Soen bowed slightly as he nodded. “The highest ranking among the Iblisi know that the prophecy will be fulfilled. The Rhonas Empire
will
fall.”
    “Why?” Drakis shrugged. “You just said you didn’t believe in the prophecy!”
    “I don’t believe the prophecy has any power of its own,” Soen corrected. “But I
do
believe that the more people who want the prophecy to be true, the greater the power they give it. The prophecy is nothing but if enough people believe it is true, then they will
make
it true. And
that
is where my obligation now lies…to the truth that all these people’s beliefs are forging into reality.”
    “That makes you a believer,” Ethis chuckled.
    Soen shook his head. “Let’s just say that I believe in the power of belief. I remain loyal to my race, my people, my nation. If my nation is to fall, then I want to insure that as few of its citizens are harmed as possible and that as much of what is good in the Empire—and there
is
good in the Empire—is saved from the chaos of the Empire’s fall.”
    “So, you were first obligated to kill me, then you felt obligated to imprison me.” Drakis continued to stare at the elf. “So what do you feel is your obligation now?”
    “The one constant obligation in all of this has been to the truth,”Soen answered. “But I know that war is coming—real war with all the horror and violence that entails. My obligation is to my people.”
    Drakis lowered his sword. “As is mine.”
    “As is mine,” Ethis added.
    “You wanted to speak to me,” Drakis said, sheathing his sword once more.