Tass snickered. But he didn't say anything.

Rynere didn't dare move, but she glared with all her might in Tass's direction.

"Why didn't you tell us? Now we are going to die, and it's all your fault!"

"First thing," Tass sent her a cocked smile. "You're not dead yet, darling. Second thing. How do you think I've survived this fellow for a thousand years -and the king, as well -if all his arrows were poisoned?"

Rynere opened her mouth to reply, but stopped.

Matthan gave a short laugh.

"You're just saying that. You don't know anything, although you're doing a remarkable job of trying to cover that up."

Tass shook his head with a smile.

"Why do you keep harping on that? If you're so convinced that I'm a phony, you don't need to repeat yourself."

"Where's Kirea?"

Tass shrugged.

"You don't have anything else to threaten me with, now do you? Then again," Tass paused briefly. "Something new happens each time. It never changes the outcome, but still. Maybe there's a twist in here."

Matthan put another arrow on the string.

"Your life."

"No twist there. Do you really think I care -"

"No. But wouldn't Kirea want her husband alive?"

"Perhaps." Tass leaned back against a tree, folding his hands behind his head. "But she trusts that I know what I'm doing."

"But don't you want to be here when her baby -" Rynere suddenly stopped, aware of who had just heard her. Matthan looked at her curiously.

"What was that?"

Rynere didn't say anything else. She just stared, wide-eyed, hoping the consequences of her slip of tongue wouldn't be too dire. Whatever the case, Tass didn't seem to mind.

"Kirea is with child?" Matthan turned back to Tass with a sly smile.

Tass smiled, half-agreeably, half-teasingly.

"Yes. It's probably a boy."

"An heir of your name?"

"Poor soul, he's one of many." Tass grinned.

"And you wouldn't even want to stay alive for him?"

"Of course I would."

"Then where's Kirea?"

"That would kind of defeat the purpose of me actually seeing him, now wouldn't it?" Tass's tone took on a darker note.

 "Very well. I'll just rid the world of you and go find her." Matthan notched an arrow on his bow.

Tass straightened, looking towards Rynere.

"Don't worry. What he says never works out."

Two seconds later Rynere didn't believe him. He was lying on the ground, an arrow in his throat.