"Pledge loyalty to the group that will bring forth the Infidante! It isn't too late, Kestra. Swear fealty to us and you'll walk beside me to that ceremony."
"What about Simon?"
He shrugged. "Until I have your loyalty, I don't really have his. Your oath can save him too."
"My oath to whom?" I looked back at Tenger. "Who do you want to claim the dagger?"
He checked my knots. "Tighten them. I'm not stupid."
"Aren't you?" I asked, though I began tightening the knots anyway.
"The Infidante could only ever be one person," Tenger said. "The natural heir to Risha's dagger." When I finished with Simon's knots, he pulled out another length of leather cord. "Now, you lean against the workbench, right next to Simon. Put your hands around the bench leg. Do it, Kestra."
I did as he said, and when he began tying my wrists, I muttered, "Then who is Risha's heir?"
"Trina told me that you found the prophecy carved on the wall of cell number four."
"One to Vanquish, One to Rule, One to Fall, But All to Fool," I mumbled. "No doubt the last line is a reference to what a fool you are."
"You're half-correct." He smiled, entirely pleased with himself. "The last line does reference me, and how I've successfully fooled everyone. For I have secretly put the Olden Blade into the hands of Risha Halderian's daughter."
I froze. "Risha had a daughter?" I tried to pretend that I didn't care about the answer, and failed at that too. Because no matter how I wished otherwise, I already knew it. "Trina?"
"She is the natural heir to the Olden Blade." Tenger finished tying my hands. "There is no question of how the ceremony will end tonight."
Trina? The girl who had threatened me with nearly every breath she drew? The girl who raged at the loss of a meal, hid her emotions with all the subtlety of the noonday sun, and who listed as her chief personal concern the desire for acceptance? This was who he wanted to entrust with bringing down the Dominion? At her best, it might take Endrick a full minute to devour her.
He continued, "We rode slowly to give her time to arrive without your interference. The ceremony will begin as soon as I pass the Olden Blade to her. It will end with the precious dagger in the hands of a Corack."
I barely heard his words. If Trina was Risha's daughter, then she probably did have the greatest claim upon the Olden Blade. She would become the Infidante, the One to Vanquish.
"I know you don't like or trust her," Tenger said. "I know she has flaws, but as the child of Risha Halderian, she has a unique destiny. After tonight, she alone will have the ability to kill Lord Endrick."
Or to be killed by him. They might as well save time and give the Olden Blade to Endrick now.
"Others may come forward," I said. "The dagger may yet accept someone else as its master."
"No," Tenger said. "It will be Trina, or no one. That's my job."
"Is that your only job? What about the second line of the prophecy?"
He grinned, so arrogant I felt my fists curling. "One to Rule? Yes, that will be fulfilled tonight as well." With that, he picked up his knife again, a weapon I now understood he would use against any other Halderian who tried to claim the dagger, or the throne. He sheathed it, then added, "It's not too late to pledge loyalty to the Coracks ... and to your future king."
By now, my temper was boiling. "Bow to a man whose leadership casts such an insignificant shadow? You insult the true king."
His smile turned false. "The true king is whoever Trina names tonight. And if you try to stop us, you will lose."
The last I saw of him was a stern frown that he must have hoped would make me cower, or beg for him to accept me. I kept my gaze at him steady, hoping he would see nothing in my expression.
Because if he did, he would probably do worse than tie me to this post. My heart was in turmoil, yet I was determined to keep fighting. This no longer had anything to do with the defeat of Lord Endrick. To save Antora, I had only one choice left. I had to stop the person meant to save Antora.
Simon!"
My eyes fluttered at the sound of my name, though I wished I hadn't heard. My head pounded fiercely, worse than when the Dominion soldiers had treated my body like a kickball. What had happened?
Through the fog that was currently serving as my memory, I vaguely recalled Tenger raising a rock. Was it to attack me, or protect me from an attack?
Someone jostled my leg and called my name again. That was Kestra.