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Inside the Palace

Jenever went inside and bent to speak to Flaubon. "I need to hurry off. Julian may be going anywhere, and I'm in the middle of battle plans regarding him. I really ought to say a few words to Benedict before I go. I will be as brief and gentle as I can."

Flaubon clutched at her arm. "Jenever ... you're not the only one fighting here. There's another army ... You need ... "

He started to cough, and a little blood ran out the side of his mouth.

"See to Benedict, then," he said at last. "But ... be careful."

"Wait." Jenever knelt beside him. "Another army? You don't mean Julian's. What do you mean?"

"Madame's," said Flaubon. "Some way off ... she sent me here with a message to Benedict. But ... she came to fight Julian when she realised he was heading for Gramerye. I don't know why ... " He paused for breath. "Benedict told no-one."

There was a sudden sound from upstairs, where Benedict was.

Jenever squeezed Flaubon's shoulder lightly. "Rest, please. You've taken some serious injuries and I've only basic medical training. Until we can get you to someone with greater skill, you musn't exert yourself."

She rose smoothly then and moved to the stairs, toward Benedict.

She found him kneeling beside the bier that bore his own corpse, his head lowered. He did not seem to be weeping - what struck her most was his terrible stillness.

But as she gained the level, he turned his head suddenly and stared at her with burning eyes.

"Keep back," he said - and there was a wild note in his voice, such as she had never expected to hear from Benedict. "Keep back ... or prepare to die."

He rose and drew the sword, still bloodstained, with which he had fought.

Jenever stopped as soon as she saw his eyes, raising her empty hands, palms towards him. "I am not your enemy, my lord Benedict," she said quietly. "I am only sorry that I could not come sooner. I did not know." She took a deep breath. "I would not have intruded on your... solitude, except that you gave me a gift, once. Your own sword. And I wanted to know if there was something that I could do for you, in return."

"Yes," he said heavily. "Take the sword and kill me. For I've become the thing I hated - a parasite, feeding on the blood of Amber."

Slowly, with infinite grace, Jenever pulled the Neverking's sword from its sheath. There was a long hiss, and then her arm dropped, sword pointing down and a little to the left of Benedict. "Because you decided to survive rather than be destroyed? Why did you decide that? If you truly believe that it was a selfish decision, one that undermines the honor of your existence until then, then I will do as you ask - I will try, I should say, because as I recall we fought once in my mind and I was not your equal - but think about it first, my lord. Think whether you did what you did for yourself, or for the rest of us. Because we needed you - and I think we still need you.

"But... the decision is yours - what you can live with, and what you cannot."

His own sword was drawn in response, and his dark eyes glittered with some inward resolve.

"Do it. But let me die fighting, as I have lived."

***

Tobias's head came up, and his eyes narrowed. Investigating would commit him for longer than he had...

At the top of the stairs he saw the bier of Benedict, where the empty shell of his brother's body lay. And beside it, fighting desperately, were Jenever and an unknown man dressed in the uniform of a Ranger, a man whose face reminded Tobias of long-dead Haakon, a clone of Julian's ...

The man was fighting magnificently - as one might expect a pure-blooded Amberite to fight. Yet every now and then his action was awkward - a feint that even a beginner might be ashamed of.

Tobias watched for a moment, brow furrowed. A frantic fight... but why wasn't Jenever taking advantage of those openings? Either she wasn't as keen as he thought she was, or...

He stood and leaned on the doorway, watching with idle interest. At a particularly interesting combination, he applauded, just once, letting the clap echo around the chamber.

***

Jenever lunged forward, pushing him. When he fought well, it took all her skill to defend herself, to keep pressing. But she was ready, and the next time that he made a mistake, she determined to capitalize on it, to make it his final mistake.

There was something in the sword play that Toby reconised ... he had seen it in Jenever's own style with Benedict's sword. He had seen it long ago ... in Amber. He had seen it ... at Patternfall. He had seen it ... in Avalon. He had been trained in the style ... although he had never matched the skills of the greatest Master of all ...

Another feint. The man in Ranger's dress had the better momentarily. He could take advantage ... he could kill Jenever now.

Only he didn't. Instead he withdrew, breathing heavily.

Tobias pushed off the door jam, studying the man as he stepped back.

"Well done," he said. "Is there to be a rematch? Pity I only caught the tail end of that one."

Jenever stopped, her sword raised. Her entire body was shaking with effort, and her voice cracked when she spoke. The undercurrent of her voice was dark with rage and effort, but the words were gentle. "You see? Did I not foretell as much? I cannot best you, and if you were to fall to an..." the word took all of Jenever's strength to force out of her teeth, "inferior... fighter, it would be the same as not to die fighting. No. You must redeem your honor against one more skilled than I, my lord."

The man turned away, his face bleak. He took two faltering, staggering steps towards the bier, and then fell to his kness, throwing himself forward so that his upper body rested upon the hollow shell of Benedict. His body seemed to shake with sobs.

Jenever turned to face Tobias, weariness and pain warring with anger and disappointment for control over her features. "I can't..." she said. "I can't anymore. That's your brother there. That's Benedict. Rather than be annihilated, he took a clone form, and it has destroyed him to become what he despised. I would have killed him - if I could have... And it just might destroy me as well. Talk to him."

She dropped to the floor and hit the plantaxy floor as hard as she could, bloodying her knuckles and coming near to breaking her hand. The Neverking's sword fell from her hand to the floor. A small wind rose, just around her, and whipped her hair about her face.

He touched her shoulder, a touch bordering on familar. "Seth will need to know," he whispered. "Please, contact him. Hold together long enough for that."

Jenever looked up and he could see her for a moment, and she was completely broken. But she nodded. She crawled away a little space to give Tobias and Benedict privacy, and then she began to sing, in a low, cracked voice, Seth's songline.

Tobias rose again and crossed to where Benedict was collapsed. Him, Tobias did not touch, but kept just out of arms reach.

"If you want your noble death," he said calmly. "You can have it. But a pointless death will redeem nothing after all this time."

There was no answer. It seemed the man had passed beyond speech.

Tobias sighed and rose, then returned to Jenever. He stopped her singing with a finger across her lips.

"I think, perhaps, I misjudged how far gone he was... Can you tell me what happened?"

She stared up at him for a moment. "It's... it's poisoned..." she said, gesturing around them. "The plantaxy - look at it. Julian - Julian must have done it. He was here. He and his army. Trying to destroy this place, to destroy Benedict. The plantaxy - poisoned - crumbling. Benedict -" Jenever's face swung over to look at the man sobbing against the bier, and she continued loud enough for him to hear, "He must have been forced out by the blood. He didn't want to - Didn't want to - and then the clone of the Hunter hit the wall and he was forced - forced - forced into him... Must have been - must have been forced... Like I was... I was..."

She took a deep breath and iron came back into her eyes. "Poisoned... and raped."

He had been about to say something, but the last made him stop dead. "When was this?" he asked softly, trying to draw her bloodied hands up to where he could look at them. "I think... the picture becomes clearer..."

Jenever's brow furrowed. "No, I... No... I was remembering, I think... Not, not recently. But they did something to me. They had to have done something."

Tobias took something out of his satchel: long strips of white gauze. He began to wrap her knuckles.

"Why 'must' they have done something to you? What do you remember? Or..." He glanced at Benedict. "What happened?"

"I told you," Jenever snapped. "Or I told you the important parts. I was at my base of operations with Blake. We had intelligence on Julian's whereabouts - though we were a bit late as it turned out, because he moved, but we also knew we had a spy in our midst. So I was going to contact Benedict and then you, to get your advice and perhaps some pertinent songlines - Julian's, for instance. But when I tried Benedict, the contact was almost nonexistent and he told me that he was under attack, by Julian's men. I took a contingent and shifted here as fast as I could, picking up another group on the way, which is why my forces are disparate. Here I found Flaubon and Benedict fighting for their lives. We defeated Julian's forces, Flaubon told me about the attack, and about Benedict taking a body. I spoke to a woman with a plantaxy outside who claimed to be Resistance but would give me no further information, and on the off chance that she was telling the truth I did not detain her. Any information she gathers here is known to Karadon already and the Auburnii cannot fail to discover it soon regardless. I'd decided to pursue Julian, but I wanted to give Benedict the chance to take his sword back, should he now desire it, in a physical form, but when I asked if I could do him a favor, he asked me to kill him. You saw the rest.

"Something must have been done to me, Toby, because I lost." Her eyes flashed. "I do not lose, I've never lost."

He finished with her hand, then met her eyes. If anything she had said had surprised him, it didn't show. He rose, pulling her up to stand with him.

"Jenn... That man there could best anyone in the universe. It is not a loss to lose to him. It's an eventuality. I've lost, as well."

Jenever shook her head, denying what he had said. "No," she said quietly. "I don't... I saw him. Saw the openings. If he was at his peak, that would be one thing, but he's been out of a body for centuries. It had to be a mistake."

Tobias' eyes moved over the Plantaxy, then to Benedict. "It was Brand. He's allied with Karadon, and attacked with Julian. He was the only one who would have enough presence to force Benedict out... and there are other pieces of evidence as well. But we can go over that later." He looked back to her.

"There's much to do... And I need you, Jenever. I need you to be strong, not despairing over a lost fight."

"You need? You need me now? What about that pretty blonde girl - Basha, I think she called herself? I'm sure she can do whatever it is you need just fine." Jenever snorted, ran a newly bandaged hand through her hair. "How's that for strong?"

She took a breath. "That... wasn't... fair, probably. But Toby... You. Don't. Understand. And you never have. Give me a moment. Let me... rest."

It was still there, in her eyes, the horror, the complete and utter brokenness. Slowly, it was leaching away, being covered by a wall of iron. Soon he would not even be able to see it, but it was there underneath.

"Dammit." For the first time, Tobias's voice began to rise, and fire began to show in his eyes. "Basha is just another foundling, Jenever. It was Seth that pulled her in. Not me. I happened to be nearby. Not only is that unfair, it's petty, Jenever, and I expect more of you."

She jerked back as if she'd been slapped, but this time there was no anger, only hurt and confusion.

"You lost that fight because somewhere in you, you have a lick of sense that says that killing Benedict is not in the best interests of you, the Resistance, or the Universe in general. I'm sorry you've been on a winning streak all your life, but we're at the end days, and it's going to start failing you."

"A winning streak?" Jenever said weakly, brow furrowed in thought. "That's... what it was?" She raised her eyes to Tobias'. "I'm very tired. I'll - if Seth's here, why don't I bring him inside, with his girl. Then we can talk about what is next. Brand, you said? I thought you'd killed him."

"Apparently not enough." He turned from her then, looking at Benedict's back as he weeped over the shell he had once occupied. Tobias sighed and passed a hand through his hair.

"We can't allow the troops to see the man like this. Word will spread... Yes, bring Seth up here, but leave Basha down there. Bring only Seth."

"Yes, sir," Jenever said coldly, rising and turning on her heel.

Tobias crossed to Benedict, touching his brother's shoulder to see if the man were any more responsive.

"Leave me, Caine," said Benedict. "Before I kill you."

Jenever, already moving away from this area, heard that and smiled. Then she went out and down the stairs.

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