is not a full resemblance between you, but if you were locked alone in that room as long as I suspect, you ought to be dead of thirst or hunger. You heal too quickly. Though you don’t have silver blood, the monks were bleeding you . . . and judging by those scars, bleeding you for a very long time. And all the stories that I have heard from the people who flee Lith say that Prince Saxen vanished fifteen years past.”
“Only fifteen years?” Surprise deepened the rasp of his voice. “It felt longer.”
Lizzan seemed not to know what to say to that, though Aerax saw the softness of her heart in her expression. But though softhearted, she was not a fool—which meant she did not fully know what to think of the man or whether to trust him. So she’d brought Aerax with her . . . and she’d also brought Caeb. Who might be the only one among them strong enough to truly face this man, though his ribs showed through his skin.
“What do you intend now?” His wary gaze swept from Aerax to Lizzan to Caeb. “Whatever reason you have come to me, know that I cannot let you kill me. My death belongs to another.”
“I have no wish to kill you. I need to know how to kill your father.”
His burst of a laugh sounded like a barking cough. “If I knew, I would. But he is no longer fully my father. A demon inhabits his body.”
Lizzan’s fingers squeezed tight on Aerax’s, and in their shared glance he saw her worry and fear that it was not merely a sorcerer-king, but a demon threatening Koth . . . and her family.
A demon who might be what she faced in glorious battle when the snow fell.
His chest tight, Aerax told her, “We will find a way.”
Swallowing hard, she looked to Saxen of Lith. “Will you tell the others all that you know of your father? You don’t have to say what Goranik is to you or reveal who you truly are.”
Jaw tight, he nodded.
“Also, if you have been chained these fifteen years, you do not know that Anumith the Destroyer comes again.” When the man’s eyes closed, as if in dismay or pain, Lizzan asked, “Do you still serve him?”
His eyes flared open. “Never will I again.”
“These warriors we travel with are building an alliance against him. I suspect they would include Lith in that alliance, if your realm would stand against the Destroyer, too.”
Another rough bark of a laugh. “You think we only have to reject the Destroyer and all will be forgiven? The Krimatheans will laugh in our faces and then slit our throats. What other redemption is there for us?”
“I do not know,” Lizzan said, and the emotional catch in her voice speared through Aerax’s chest. “But I have to believe that death is not the only answer.”
“If the Destroyer is coming, then so is death,” Saxen said grimly. “So any other answer will not matter much.”
“It will. This is an alliance of all the western realms. And even if you will not join, you can help. Did you and your father not travel with the Destroyer for a time?”
The man’s face hardened. “We did.”
“What does he want? Does he search for something?”
“Never did the Destroyer say what he wanted. Of course he would not. He is no fool.” He looked to Aerax. “You love this woman? I would only have to take her away to have absolute power over you. What would you do to see her safe?”
Tension gripped his throat. “There is nothing I would not do.”
“So you see. Any man who reveals what he wants is exposing what might give others power over him. The Destroyer never spoke of what he wanted.”
Lizzan nodded. “If he searched for something, then we would look for it, too. And if we found it, we could destroy it. But what of his purpose? Why do so many follow him?”
The man gave a thin smile. “He is saving the world.”
Sheer disbelief parted her lips. “From what? Himself?”
“He did not say what threat it was. Only that everything he did would save us all in the end—and that he was the only one who could bear the burden of what must be done.”
Unease coiled through Aerax’s chest. Too familiar that seemed.
“But you no longer believe it?” Lizzan asked.
“I was born into believing it. But I do not believe in much of anything now.” His gaze swept over