She forced Arling to sit on one of the stone benches while she stood over her, one hand gripping her hair, pulling back the girl’s head, the other keeping the blade of the knife pressed up against her throat.
“My purpose in all this is simple, even though my methods have not always been successful. In the beginning, I wanted only to be Prime Minister. That meant getting rid of Drust Chazhul and Lehan Arodian. Stoon helped me with that. I assume from his failure to return with Arling that you put a stop to any further help he might give?”
“He was trying to kill us,” Aphen said.
“Which he wasn’t supposed to do, I should point out. He was supposed to bring you to me so we could talk. But he was terrified of you—ever since that confrontation at Paranor when you almost caught him. He couldn’t seem to get past it. So he made his own decision about how to handle matters. It makes no difference now. Mostly, he did what he was supposed to do, so I have no complaints. His time with me was over in any case.”
She shifted slightly, looking down at Arling. “Comfortable? Good.” She smiled, and her gaze shifted back to Aphen. The knife never moved. “What I’ve wanted all along—even when I wasn’t Prime Minister, but was planning to be—was to find a way to ally myself with the Druids. I am as much a believer in the importance of magic as those who make up the order. I have been exposed to magic all my life. Members of my family use magic. I use it. But it was clear that my chances for forming an alliance were nonexistent as long as the Druids and the Federation remained enemies, so I began looking for other ways.
“When Khyber Elessedil and the others set out for the Westland, I was curious as to why. I began trying to find out. Drust wanted to crush the order, and so he sent airships and an army to seize Paranor—all of which came to nothing. His spies in Arborlon, which were really my spies, could learn nothing useful. The Druids went out, but only one returned. I began seeking answers to this puzzle.”
She pointed to Aphen. “You had those answers, but I couldn’t find a way to get them out of you. I knew you wouldn’t reveal them to me willingly. I needed to find a way to force you. That was the purpose of dispatching Stoon to intercept you. I didn’t know where you were going, but once I had you in hand I would be able to find out. Stoon failed me, but through a stroke of luck Arling came under my control. I learned most of what I needed to quickly enough from her.”
“You pretended friendship when you gave us the Sprint, but you tried to kill my sister in Arborlon weeks before that!” Arling snapped.
Edinja bent close to her. “Not kill her. Disable her. I wanted what she had found in the Elven histories. I knew she had found something, but I didn’t know what. It was evident early on that it was important. I wanted whatever it was, but my servants failed me. Drust’s creatures. He was the one who sent them, persuaded by Stoon on my orders. A mistake.”
“How do you think to gain entrance into the Druid order at this point?” Aphen asked. “You’ve ruined any chance of that by coming after us.”
“Have I?” Edinja shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. There was never any real chance. I know that now. You would never have had me. None of you would have agreed to it. Things change, in any case, and they have done so here. I no longer care about an alliance with the Druids. The Third Druid Order is at an end. The Druids have become irrelevant.”
Aphen realized with a start that she was right. All that remained of the order were Seersha and herself. The rest were either known dead or likely so—including Khyber Elessedil. The missing Elfstones, which might have made a difference, were lost. The Druids had failed in everything they had sought to accomplish.
“What is it you want, then?” she asked. “You’ve come after us for a purpose. What is it?”
“I want almost exactly what you want—to take Arling back to the Elves in Arborlon and let her do whatever she is meant to do with the Ellcrys seed.”
Aphen and Cymrian stared. “Then why are we standing about?” the Elven Hunter snapped. “Why aren’t we doing just that?”
Edinja cocked her head. “I said almost. We aren’t doing this. I am. Alone.”
It took Aphen only a moment to see what she meant. “Because you want to be the one who returns Arling and saves the Elves. You think that will elevate you to a position of power.”
“I know it will. It will make me the single most powerful person in the Four Lands. How can it not? I will have saved the Elven nation by bringing back the one person who can restore their precious Ellcrys. I will be in a position to form an alliance not between the Druids and the Federation, but between the Federation and the Elves. I will be forgiven everything. Even leaving Arishaig to its fate as I did will no longer matter. I will be appointed Prime Minister of the Federation for life after this.”