Shadowdance 01 - A Dance of Cloaks

truth. I will dismiss your questions like foolish inquiry, instead discussing matters that only a
boy
would be interested in.”
    The threat had worked.
    “What old matters?” Aaron asked as he sat cross-legged on the carpet.
    “Do you remember that first day? I was to have an answer from you, but forgot after my … brief stay in the dungeons. I asked you why the Trifect would declare war on your father after he had built up an alliance of guilds over the course of three years. Do you have an answer?”
    Aaron had not given the matter much thought. He went with his initial guess, hoping it would be right. Robert always insisted that Aaron would know the answer to all questions he asked, and no other answer seemed to pop out at him.
    “Thren became too powerful,” Aaron said. “He was stealing too much gold, so the Trifect forced this war with him and the guilds.”
    Robert chuckled.
    “A child’s answer,” he said. “Coupled with a child’s trust in his father. You couldn’t be more wrong, boy. Perhaps we should read the story about Parson and the Lion instead of discussing such adult matters.”
    “Wait,” Aaron said, his voice rising above a whisper. Robert seemed to notice, and he looked pleased.
    “Do you have a better answer?” he asked. “Since your first one was so embarrassingly wrong?”
    Aaron’s mind raced. He had to figure it out. Anything was better than the fairy tales.
    “Thren didn’t grow too strong,” he ventured, each sentence coming out as if stepping on ice to test its strength. “If he had, then the Trifect wouldn’t have openly opposed him. The Trifect weighs all options, and this war has cost them greatly. Thren would not have stolen as much in twenty years as they have spent in the past five.”
    “Now you’re making sense,” Robert said. “The Trifect does not take on strong foes. They weaken them, poison their insides and rot their hearts. Once their target is desperate and fearful, then they strike.”
    “But the Trifect forced this war,” Aaron said. He rubbed his thumbs together, as if trying to coax the truth out from an invisible coin. “And my father is not weak. Not then, and not now. The Trifect acted outside their normal behavior.”
    “Did they really? You say Thren was not weak. How do you know?”
    Aaron paused, and his head leaned back a little as if he had smelled a bad smell.
    “How could he be weak?” Aaron asked. “We’ve survived against the Trifect. We’ve killed many of them, and thwarted every attempt to defeat us.”
    “Not every attempt,” Robert said. “Must I get out the children’s rhymes? Your father has suffered many casualties, and his coffers are near empty. This war taxes both sides. Never think you are invincible and your opponent a whipping boy. Rarely do matters work out that simply.”
    “Still, my father was not weak.”
    “You are wrong,” Robert insisted. “Even a weak Thren Felhorn can withstand for many years. That is irrelevant. Have you ever heard that sometimes the
appearance
of weakness is just as dangerous as true weakness?”
    Aaron nodded. He had heard such a sentiment before.
    “Then consider this … five years ago, your father was consolidating power, but then other guilds broke away from him. Too many wanted control, and Thren’s reputation was not yet established, though he built much of it during that time, brick by brick with the blood of his would-be assassins.”
    He paused, and Aaron sensed the unasked question. With the information given, he should be able to piece together the rest. He thought, his fingers pressed against his lips. He puzzled it over, and Robert did not hurry him.
    “The Trifect realized how dangerous he was,” Aaron said at last. “They knew he would eventually succeed in uniting the guilds against them. So when they saw the infighting, they tried to kill him.”
    “Exactly,” Robert said. A bit of a smile touched his face. “They saw Thren’s power as brittle and tried to smash it with a hammer. They did as they always did, Aaron, by striking when their opponent was weakest. But they erred, for your father erred, one of the few times in his life, but also the greatest. Just before the war between the Trifect and the underworld began, a weak guild, the Mantis Guild, tried breaking away. Instead of crushing that rebellion, your father let it last for several months.”
    “Why would he do that?” Aaron asked.
    “I should ask you,” Robert said. “You should