Page 109 of City of Stone and Silence

Prime’s expression goes dead still, which I take for a good sign.

“You were already here when the Cresos and the Minders came ashore,” I say. “I gather you’d been here for a while.”

“A while,” Prime agrees. He tries to sound nonchalant, but even the fake voice shows cracks.

“And you clearly want to use the access points. To take control of the Harbor system for yourself.”

He gives a modest shrug.

“It follows, then, that it’s not the presence of the other crews that’s keeping you out. If you’d been able to take control, you would have done it before they arrived. Which also explains why you’ve only harassed them intermittently, without risking any of your little pets.” I nod at the lizard-birds. “You can’t get to those access points yourself, can you?”

Prime stares at me in stony silence. I lean back against the wall.

“Is it just that you’re afraid?” I say. “Trapped in your own fortress?”

“Afraid?” He laughs, suddenly all confidence. “Is that what you think?”

“It fits the evidence.”

“You have no idea who you’re dealing with,” he says. “What class of being you’re dealing with. I am the Prime Eddicant. I was at death’s door when Soliton brought me here. My power—the true power, the heart of being—has kept me alive ever since. Can you possibly understand that? The force of will necessary to transcend death for centuries?”

Centuries? I try not to let my reaction show. Blessed’s rotting balls. He’s madder than I thought.

“And now you think to … what, fool me?” He shakes his head. “Form an alliance, then stab me in the back? As though I would allow such a thing. Did you learn nothing from watching your friends torn to pieces?”

I learned quite a lot. “I wanted to destroy you. I tried to get the others to help me. Gragant and the Minders, Catoria and the Cresos.”

“I know. I felt you use their access points.”

“Gragant I defeated in a contest.” Never mind what sort of contest. “But Catoria refused to grant me access, no matter how I pleaded with her.”

He’s smiling again. “So what you were not offered, you took.”

“Yes.” I lower my gaze. “I had to fight my way out again, of course.”

I’m not usually a great liar. But this lie is what Prime wants to believe.

“You were right,” I go on, as his smile widens. “I thought about it for a long time. I took over Soliton’s crew, just like I took over my ward in Kahnzoka. I didn’t know what I was, then, but I do now. I want to help you.”

“What about the others?” he says. “Your friends. Your lover.”

“I have the access points. I don’t need them anymore.”

“Then grant me access,” he says. There’s no disguising the hunger in his voice. “I can show you how.”

“And then you’ll have no reason to keep me alive.” I shake my head. “No, thanks.”

“That leaves us at a bit of an impasse, doesn’t it?”

I shrug. His face goes dead again for a while, its guiding intelligence elsewhere. When animation returns to it, his expression is thoughtful.

“Do you know how this place came to be?” he says. “The Harbor. Has Silvoa puzzled it out?”

“You told me it was built by Eddicants as somewhere they could rule.”

“It was built by one man. The first Prime Eddicant. And the last, until me.”

I shake my head, uncomprehending.