23.7

Dirk stared at the severed head on his desk. His mouth settled into a displeased frown. He had been afraid Zyrdicia might do something like this. Now the whole world was going to know that she had left him.

Kendall's lips pursed expectantly, waiting for his king to say something.

"Well don't just stand there, you fool. Get rid of Trevor's head!" Dirk snapped nastily.

"Murder of a royal messenger is treason. A declaration of rebellion by any noble is treason. Interfering with your military is treason. She's launched a civil war against you! You cannot permit this woman to get away such crimes. If you cannot take her in hand, you will have to put her to death. You do realize that, Sire?"

"Care to capture her, my vassal?" Dirk mocked angrily. "Shall I offer a guess how many seconds it would take her to dispose of you? Or how she would lash out against me?"

"The public defiance is an outrage, my lord. We should punish the people of Geshna, then. Raze the city."

"She would not care in the least. She might even find their suffering amusing," Dirk said grimly. He imagined her reaction if he tried to respond with military force. She would undoubtedly decimate any battalion he sent to Geshna and do something gruesome with their corpses to frighten the rest of his men. Once news of Dagonia's rebellion spread, he expected that most of his own officers would mutiny and run off to serve her at the first opportunity.

"She's leading your own nobles against you!" Kendall said, exasperated that his king was not angrier about it.

"Really just one, so far. Andrea hardly counts," Dirk corrected darkly, as though the difference mattered. The thought of Andrea poisoning Zyrdicia's head with nasty musings about him infuriated him. He grumbled, "Was Bethel there by any chance, too?"

"No, my lord."

Dirk scowled, trying to put the image of the three of them allied against him out of his mind. It was a nightmare image. He instead thought about killing Tristan Ildewynd. Tristan's county was protected by mountains on all sides, making it inaccessible during the winter. Sending troops there now was folly. But the treacherous Count was vulnerable as long as he was in Geshna. There, at least, Dirk had a target that he could strike out against.

He ordered calmly, "Go back to Geshna and bring Ildewynd to me."

"As you wish. Shall I bring you his head?"

"I want him alive so that I can kill him myself."

"And the queen?"

"Let her be," Dirk commanded sullenly. He understood that Zyrdicia was daring him to escalate whatever conflict she perceived was underway. He recognized the strategy and knew better than to fall for it. She might very well lay waste to his entire kingdom before sunrise, if provoked. Putting an end to this conflict would require guile, not force.

He was both disappointed and relieved that she had burned up his letter. Finding a way to end this idiotic conflict with her was going to take more than words.

"You must stop her," said Kendall.

Dirk hissed, "I want her back, you fool! I do not want a war with her. You saw what she did to the South!"

Kendall nodded grimly. He had only recently seen the wasteland with his own eyes. "Perhaps we could find a way to slay her before-"

A blast from the monocle ended the thought before Kendall could finish it. The knight doubled over in pain for a full minute before looking up to see Dirk glowering at him balefully.

"If you ever mention murdering my queen to me again, you'll never draw another breath," the king warned icily, a hint of madness glittering in his eyes.

"Yes, my lord," Kendall gasped.

Dirk paced for a moment, thinking. He realized that Kendall was, of course, correct that this public disobedience could cause him grave problems. That at least was something he could deal with. The key to diffusing the situation was to refuse to concede that there was any situation to diffuse. People were used to her displays of disobedience. Everyone knew she goaded him deliberately. So long as he acted as though it was just another unremarkable lovers' quarrel, perhaps everyone else would too.

His eyes drifted to the frost-covered window as his mind turned over the possibilities. He found her presence in Karteia encouraging. If she truly hated him and never wanted to see him again, she would be in some distant world where he could never find her. In their twisted way of relating to one another, he believed that the fact that she was in Karteia causing him problems suggested that she missed him. That thought provided him a measure of solace.

The door to his study opened softly then. A house servant hobbled in quietly with an armload of wood. The old servant set about building up the fire in the hearth to ward of the evening's chill. Dirk stared at the man, his eyes narrowed. He had never seen this particular servant before. The man looked truly ancient-someone in his seventh or eighth decade, at least. His thin face and beaked nose were covered in deep wrinkles. Dirk made a mental note to inquire of Cai about him. There was no reason to permit such a decrepit creature in the castle.

While the servant carefully laid logs into the fireplace, Dirk asked Kendall idly, "Did you see Zyrdicia's face as she killed Trevor?"

"I was barely five feet away. Of course I saw it. A big, black sword appeared out of thin air. She used it to lop his head off before anyone had a clue what she intended. She threw the thing at me, without a trace of remorse or disgust. And the whole time she had this sweet little half-smile like a damned child."

A trace of a mockery appeared on Dirk's lips as he glared at his vassal. He chided, "And you did not even suspect she was about to slay him?"

"No, my lord," Kendall admitted, chagrined. "She's very clever."

A gleam of satisfaction sparkled in Dirk's eyes at the acknowledgment. "Cleverness is the least of her virtues, I assure you."

The knight met his lord's gaze and answered, "I regret that I was too busy wondering whether she was going to kill me next to notice."

Dirk recognized that she was taking tremendous risks in killing with her sword in a public place like that. She was daring to tempt the blood hunger. "When it was done, did she kill anyone else?"

"I don't know. I left immediately."