Tyrion we have heard so much about,’ said the Everqueen. Her voice was low and pleasant but it irritated Tyrion, as did her condescending manner.
‘I am afraid I do not know what you have heard about me, your serenity,’ he said.
‘I confess I was expecting someone a little more polished,’ she said with a trace of acid in her voice.
‘I am sorry to disappoint,’ he said. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Prince Perian smirking and he realised that he was not doing his own chances of becoming champion any good here and that was giving his rivals cause for amusement.
He liked that even less. He was getting off to a bad start. Perhaps he was sabotaging his own chances of winning because he did not want the prize.
Already the Everqueen was moving along the line, and he noticed that Prince Perian was following through the ritual with polished aplomb. He noticed also that the captain of the Everqueen’s guard was staring at him coldly as if memorising his face.
He suspected that he had made an enemy there by his disrespect for her mistress. He smiled cheerfully at her in a way that he could not have managed with Alarielle and which was, as he knew, very provoking under the circumstances. The captain turned her head away quickly as if to hide her anger, but he saw that there was a red flush on her cheeks.
Very good, Tyrion thought to himself, very suave. He did not think he could have done worse in this situation if he had tried. In fact, he suspected that he would probably have done better. He told himself that he did not care, that he did not want to be part of this herd of worshippers, that he was quite happy that he was immune to whatever magic surrounded the Everqueen. He suspected however that he was not really immune, but rather it simply affected him differently.
Some of his fellow candidates looked as if they wanted to challenge him to a duel there and then. Some of them looked satisfied that a potential rival had eliminated himself from the competition so early, and some of them simply looked confused as if they could not understand his behaviour. They looked at him pityingly and that made him even angrier.
Tyrion knew that he needed to get a grip on himself. If he was going to be eliminated from this competition he wanted it to be because he was beaten by his opponents, not because he had beaten himself.
He resolved himself to do better. If he was going to lose here, he was going to lose openly and fairly after he had done his best. There were still tournaments to be entered and fights to be won and he had no intention of losing any of those, even if he could win nothing else. This was his chance to prove that he was among the best warriors in elvendom, if not the best.
Tomorrow he would find out.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
N’Kari could tell the druchii troops were nervous. He could tell they hated him. He rather enjoyed the sensation. He wore a form appropriate for the situation, an armoured female parody of Malekith, which amused and served him in multiple ways.
It mocked the Witch King while at the same time reminding his followers from whom ultimate authority flowed. It pained N’Kari to admit that he needed that. The spells binding him prevented him from bringing his full powers to bear. Without Malekith’s permission, he could not unleash them.
Fortunately, the dark elves were in the habit of obeying their king. Malekith had ensured that it could not be otherwise, at least when his eye or the eye of his direct representative was on them.
A delicious aroma of fear rose from the assembled soldiery and their leaders. None of them wished to invite, or even give the excuse for, punitive action. There were many ways that could be turned to amusing advantage N’Kari thought. If he wished.
At the moment, he did not really want to. Malekith had calculated things very finely. N’Kari did not want to interfere with his plans to ravage Ulthuan. He wanted very badly to see that happen and he had made up his mind to do everything in his power to help in this one area.
He wanted to kill high elves and the best way of doing that was to see that their savage kindred were in a position to do as much damage