Armageddon's Children - Terry Brooks [56]
“That remains to be seen. You’ve had three chances already and nothing to show for it.”
Delloreen’s smile twisted into something unpleasant. “Too bad about the children, isn’t it, Fin-Fin? They would have kept you amused for hours. All those lost opportunities to make a fresh batch of little demons. Such a waste!
It must make you very angry that she took them away.”
He managed a disinterested shrug. “I’ve no need of more children, Delloreen.”
She laughed. “Of course, you haven’t. All you need are your memories of the ones you’ve already played all your hateful little games with. Isn’t that right?”
She was deliberately taunting him, something she had made a habit of doing over the years, but which today, for reasons he couldn’t explain, set his teeth on edge. The way she said it told him that things had changed between them in a way that couldn’t be set right. It wasn’t so much what she said as the tone she used, as if daring him to do something about it. She had never come at him like this before. No one challenged him—no one in his right mind.
She smiled at him as she might have a child. “Stop worrying, Old Man.
You’ll have what you want soon enough. You’ll have your precious Knight of the Word to play games with.”
He was still thinking about the way she had spoken to him a moment earlier, but he nodded agreeably. “Will I? I don’t know. Perhaps she is too much for you. Perhaps I should send one of the others this time. The Klee, for instance?”
He did not miss the flush that blossomed like blood between the patches of scale. “The Klee is an animal. It doesn’t think. It won’t know what to do with her.”
He looked at her questioningly, showing nothing of malice or disgust or the half a dozen other things he was feeling. His seamed, weathered face was an unreadable road map. “Perhaps an animal is what’s needed.”
He turned away before she could answer, giving her a moment to think about it. The gates of the compound were beginning to splinter. The once-men were advancing in a steady wave, the living climbing atop the bodies of the dead. A pyramid of corpses was forming at the base of the walls; here and there limbs still twitched. It was what made the once-men so useful: they didn’t think, didn’t feel, and didn’t care about dying.
“The fact remains, she needs to be eliminated,” he continued.
“I told you. I can manage it.”
There was an edge to her words, but he kept his eyes on the battle at the compound gates. “I fear you underestimate her, Delloreen.”
“As you once did Nest Freemark?” she snapped. “Hold the mirror up to your own face before you hold it up to mine, Old Man!”
He knew in that instant that he was going to have to kill her, but he did not change expression or react in any way. He just nodded and kept looking at the fighting in front of him, his mind working it through.
“Well,” he said finally, “I expect you are right. I shouldn’t be judging you. The fact of the matter is I’m doing too much of that lately. It’s because I’m tired of this business. I’ve been at it too long. Someone younger and fresher is needed.” He looked at her and saw the wariness in her lizard eyes.
“Don’t look so surprised. You were right about me. There’s no use pretending otherwise. I’ve been alive a long time, and my enthusiasm for most things has been used up. My only real pleasure now comes from the children and the experiments. If I were to do nothing else, I could be happy.”
He looked away again, letting her chew on that. Then he said, “Are you eager to take my place, Delloreen? I think maybe you are.
I think it’s time you did. But it has to be handled right. My declaration of support will help, yet it isn’t enough by itself. You must provide your followers with reassurance that you are the right choice to lead them. Just a little something to instill fresh confidence.”
She hadn’t said a word, still listening.
“Bring me the head of that girl on a stake, Delloreen,” he said suddenly, almost as if he had just thought of it. “The head of a Knight