For the seventeenth story in the "If" series, musings on the man Eugenides will one day become...
If all men count with you, but none too much…
"He is dangerous," the councilmen said. "He could take the Gift—he may style himself Thief, but he's a rival claimant to the throne—we'd have civil war, and the only victor would be Sounis—"
Well do they convince each other, thought the Minister of War, that these things are what make Eugenides dangerous.
He sat, stone-faced and unmoving, as the Council pulled itself closer and closer to its decision. None but Eddis looked at him, but her gaze he would not meet. "He is dangerous," he knew her eyes would say. Not worried for her throne—Helen was no fool—but…
("The best swordsman I've ever trained!" Hector had once raged to his eldest, "and he refuses to even consider becoming a soldier!"
And Temenus had replied, slowly, "Maybe it is for the best. I love my brother, but sometimes, in his eyes…"
The ire had all drained from Hector's body, and he had slumped, defeated. "I could help him," he whispered. "He would learn to control it.
"Wouldn't he?")
The Council continued toward the inevitable conclusion of its deliberation, but, silently, the Minister of War slipped away. He would send Gen to Sounis for a while, after an undiscoverable Gift, and maybe—
Maybe, when he returned, his own countrymen wouldn't vote to kill him.
Maybe, when he returns, he will have learned how to take life—and how to spare it.