The Dawn of a Desperate War (The Godlanders War) by Aaron Pogue Page B

and hungry for any advantage you can grasp. I love Auric precisely because he is none of those things, and I will not let you prey upon his goodness.”
    Corin blinked. He’d not expected this. “Auric is a soldier. A mercenary! Even if I’d come to ask him to fight by my side, I wouldn’t be the first. And my cause wouldn’t be the worst.”
    “Perhaps. But I believe you may well be the most devious. I fear that you recognize in him a spark that none else ever thought to fan to flame.”
    Corin grunted. “I begin to see. You love him as the humble farmboy. But he could be so much more.”
    “I have known men who were more, and none of them were better for it.”
    “But surely none started from such honest stock.”
    She dismissed the argument with a shake of her head. “He would make a mighty general and an admirable king, with some able counsel, but I understand the demands that weigh on both sorts of men. Either role might rob me of him as surely as some grievous battlefield.”
    “Are you so selfish, princess?”
    She arched an eyebrow, and Corin understood the words she didn’t say. He was at least as selfish in his pursuits, and he acknowledged it with spread hands and a mock bow. But he pressed on.
    “I am but a vile rogue. You, however, are gracious and benign. I’ve seen it. You were far more forgiving the first time we spoke.”
    She nodded sharply. “I was. But two things have changed since then.”
    “The first?”
    “I have come to know you. I fear I’ve never met a man so capable of heartless guile and desperate depravity than the one who stands before me.”
    Corin licked his lips. He could find no answer to that, so he nodded and asked weakly, “And the second?”
    “I am with my Auric now. That has taught me a selfishness I never knew before. I am no more a princess. That matters too. I will cling to him however I must, and the world outside can burn for all I care.”
    “Then why have you not already sent me on my way?”
    “I promised Auric I would hear you out. But I do not want your apologies and I do not want your careful lies. Tell me why you’ve come here, and then I will send you on your way.”
    It was not a generous offer, but given the things she’d said, it was more than he should have hoped for. For half a heartbeat he cast about, searching for some clever lie that would gain him her compassion, but in the end he settled on the truth.
    “I mean to bring Ephitel to justice.”
    She sighed. “This is not news to me.”
    “No. But it is a complicated matter. Among other things, it depends on a certain artifact I discovered in my journeys.”
    “What artifact?”
    “There is a weapon with the power to wound the invulnerable Ephitel.”
    Sera blinked at that. She covered her shock with the careful decorum of an Ithalian princess, but it showed in the pulse pounding at her temple and the quaver in her voice. “You . . . surely there is not such a thing.”
    “There is,” Corin said. “Aeraculanon’s blade, and it can do to Ephitel what it once did to Memnon. The druids know it for what it is.”
    “And you have this sword?”
    “I do.”
    Her eyes widened, but then she looked him up and down. “Not with you, though. I must take your word?”
    Corin quickly shook his head. “I don’t have it now, but it is coming here.”
    She laughed. “That is a magic sword indeed.”
    He fought down a growl of irritation. “I did not know if I could come here unmolested, so I sent it by a trusted messenger. It might be waiting here already. Have you not had a visit from a city dwarf?”
    Her eyes narrowed. “You don’t mean the silversmith?”
    “Aye,” Corin said. “I had forgotten you were already friends with dear Benjamin.”
    “Not friends,” she said, “but he has served my family. I am surprised that you can tolerate him.”
    “I have known him longer than this current engagement, and I have reason enough to trust him. In fact, it helps that he belongs to your