"So you're just going to leave Vahanian in Dark Haven?"
Malesh shook his head. "No. We must break Dark Haven the way we'll break the Council and shatter the truce. Vahanian's too well protected to strike. He won't be. moved by threats. He cares little for his own safety. But about the peasants on his lands, he's come to care a great deal. They're one weakness." Malesh's eyes glittered. "I understand he plans to return from Margolan with a bride. That will be our opening. We'll strike at the heart of Dark Haven and bleed it dry."
"YOU'RE NOT PUSHIING me hard enough." Jon-marc Vahanian wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. Laisren, his vayasb moru trainer, looked annoyed. "You're mortal. What do you expect?" "I expect to be able to defend myself, the way I've always been able to fight."
"You're one of the finest fighters in the Winter Kingdoms-perhaps the best in a generation. Against mortals."
Jonmarc shook his head. His long dark hair was matted with sweat, and he was breathing hard. "Not good enough. You saw what happened at the Council. I'll never win the respect of the vayash moru if I have to have
bodyguards trailing me. I have to be able to hold my own in a fight-I need to have a chance of winning."
Laisren frowned. "I trained Martris Drayke at the citadel in Principality because he was going to fight Foor Arontala. Tell me exactly why I'm training the Lord of Dark Haven- protector of Those Who Walk the Night-to kill vayasb moru?"
"Because the truce isn't worth the price of the paper it was written on," Jonmarc shot back, "and you know it. A storm's coming-I can feel it. Too many things are changing. Bargaining from a position of weakness is a lousy way to deal with someone like Uri. Even if he's bluffing, I have the feeling that his second-"
"Malesh."
"-isn't. I can't protect Carina or the mortals who are also part of Dark Haven if I'm dead."
Laisren shook his head. "We've been sparring for two candlemarks. You've held your own."
Jonmarc glared. "You've been pulling your punches. You're not moving at full speed. You're taking it easy on me, dammit."
"Carina won't be happy if I break anything she's just healed. You'll be sore enough-and bruised-from the last couple of throws, even if I didn't go as hard on you as I could have."
"Yeah, but I barely touched you." Jonmarc was bleeding from a score of cuts and scrapes, some from Laisren's blade and some from the
rough rock of the walls and floor. But only a handful of his own strikes had connected, slicing through Laisren's tunic and opening a gash on his arm that had already healed. "Most mortals couldn't get close." "I can do better." Laisren looked skeptical. "How?" Jonmarc shook his head. "When I fight, when I'm in the middle of. a battle, it's like everything slows down. Time changes. I just know where the other guy is going before he moves. That's what's always kept_ me alive- even in the betting games in Nargi. In my head, time works differently for me. If I can just nudge that a little, I think I can handle a vayash moru in a real fight." "You're taking Uri seriously." Jonmarc shook his head and dipped himself a drink of cool water from a nearby bucket. "Not Uri. Malesh. Yestin's right. The old ways are coming apart. The war in Margolan, when it comes, could draw in all of the Winter Kingdoms. If that happens-and I hope for Tris's sake it doesn't-every petty thief and cutthroat is going to try to knock off his boss and take his place. I'll lay my bets that's what Malesh is waiting for. He doesn't want Uri's seat on the Council and he doesn't want Dark Haven. He wants vayash moru to rule the Winter Kingdoms."