Blood Lies (Dark Brothers of the Light #9) (25 page)

Grygg sat with his arm around Chinisi, calm
and stoic. "He isn't going to die, Little Sister. He's too tough. A
little piece of shit like Jingen could never kill him."

Chinisi turned into Grygg's arms and wept
against his chest.

"If Dawnreturning doesn't order Jingen
executed, I'll slit his sorry throat myself."

"I agree," said Dahnig.

"Me too," said Iyan.

Chinisi swallowed, her lips parting slightly
in distress. "Thank you, but I don't want any of you getting into
trouble for our sake. Besides, I have every faith in Lord
Dawnreturning's judgment."

Melupo 5, 1077

"They spent the night alone together."
Cordwainer said as he scrubbed his back with a soaped brush on a
long handle.

Lobelia rolled her sleeves up. "Let me do
that for you."

She took the brush and set it aside, soaping
a wash cloth instead, which she ran over her husband's lean
back.

"Feels good, Lobelia." He bent forward so
she could get all of him. "No matter the circumstance, it wasn't
seemly. People will draw their own conclusions."

"Where are you going with this?"

"Chinisi told me she's in love with
him."

Lobelia made a disparaging sound. "A young
girl's fancy. It will fade."

"He went after her at the risk of his life.
That counts. There's courage there."

"Where are you going with this?" Lobelia
asked again, impatience threading her voice.

"An engagement if he survives. After all
they did spend the night together."

"Don't be foolish. I'll have the midwives
check Chinisi. If she's still virgin, then none of this
matters."

"It's appearance that matters, Lobelia. That
and the fact they love each other."

"I refuse to watch Chinisi make the same
mistakes – or worse – that others have."

Cordwainer scowled. "Like a rushed wedding
because of a pregnant bride?"

Lobelia's face went florid, and she slapped
him, her hand making a loud splat on his wet back. "Twenty-six
years of marriage and you still bring that up?"

"I married you anyway. You had neither
parents nor guardians to force a match. I could have tossed you
aside and taken a higher caste bride."

"Shut up!"

"I am trying to make a point here." Geoffry
dragged his wife sputtering into the water with him, which caused
the tub to overflow. "Chinisi will be no more harmed by a match
with Stygean than you have been with me."

Lobelia laced her fingers across her soggy
lap, her face set in a mask of disapproval. "You're wrong. The
male's rank is taken on by the female."

"You are missing the point, Lobelia, my
dear. There's no way Chinisi will be considered untainted having
spent the night in the forest with him. General opinion will always
hold that he must have gotten his knob into her. For the sake of
her honor, she must marry him if he survives."

"I refuse to accept that."

* * * *

Lobelia came to Stygean's room expecting to
find Chinisi there. The girl had developed what she considered an
unhealthy obsession with Stygean. She hoped the boy died. Chinisi
deserved better than a filthy sa'necari.
I'll poison him before
I'll let him marry Chinisi.

She saw Chinisi holding Stygean's hand and
tried to snatch her loose. "Come away, there are things for you to
do."

Chinisi twisted free and Grygg interposed
himself between her and her aunt.

"Let her be," Grygg growled.

Lobelia glared, her eyes full of disdain. A
lowborn kandoyarin had no place defying her. "I decide what is and
is not appropriate for my niece."

"Chinisi is fourteen, old woman," Grygg
snarled. "She's of age."

"You can't take me away from him," Chinisi
said.

"He isn't fit for you," Lobelia snapped.
"He's sa'necari."

"He's a good mon," said Grygg.

Lobelia had a suspicion that if Stygean
died, Chinisi would turn to Grygg and become as fixated on him as
she had been the sa'necari. Neither of them were acceptable. "Come
with me, Chinisi. Or shall I speak to your uncle about this?"

Chinisi threw a despairing glance at the
youths clustered around Stygean’s bed and stood up. "I'm
coming."

Lobelia pulled her from the room. "What
could you have been thinking, girl? Everyone is saying that you
opened your legs to Stygean. I intend to have the midwives check
your virginity. Two of them are waiting for us now."

Chinisi quailed. "I'm still a virgin, Aunt
Lobelia."

A smug look settled on Lobelia's face at
Chinisi's reaction to the thought of having the healers putting
their fingers inside her to check that the hymen was still in
place. It was one of the few things that could not be easily Read
for.

"So you say. I'm beginning to wonder. Only a
slut with her legs open would associate with such lower caste
scum."

Her emotions already jangled and raw,
Chinisi winced, and tears streamed from her eyes. She felt
vulnerable in ways she never had before. "They're good myn, all of
them."

"You're too inexperienced, Chinisi. You're
not a good judge of character. Let me make those decisions. All
that men think of is sex. That is all these scum wish from you.
They think with their penises. Therefore we must be more choosy
about who we associate with. A man does not want a soiled woman for
a wife. If I had given in to your uncle – and believe me he asked –
he would never have married me."

* * * *

Word had been spread through the manor that a
decision had been made regarding Jingen and Stygean. People
gathered thickly in the center of the courtyard and fanned out to
hear judgment pronounced. Haig, Jun and several Lemyari moved the
watchers back to clear space as Isranon walked in with Anksha
beside him and mounted the dais from which Jeevys had been judging
the snow contests. Chinisi and her uncle followed closely.
Isranon's commanders assembled as witnesses.

Cordwainer and the two other masters watched
impassively as everyone assembled. Nans, Zulaika and Travis moved
to their sides.

Grygg and his friends immediately went to
Chinisi, and the tall youth took her in his arms. "It will be all
right, Little Sister. Don't you worry."

Lobelia ducked her head, concealing a frown
at Grygg's easy familiarity with her niece. Chinisi was associating
with the wrong type of people.

A row was opened. His hands bound behind him
and spellcorded, Jingen stumbled along behind Luck, who held the
end of the rope tether attached to Jingen's neck in the form of a
modified hangmon's noose. Jingen cast his eyes about in desperate
sweeps, but found no sympathetic faces. The soldiers, rangers and
auxiliaries alike all booed and hissed at him.

"Hang him!" some of the onlookers
shouted.

"Open his belly and tack him to a tree,"
cried others.

Their noises filled the air with
confusion.

"Give him to Anksha!" Jun yelled. "I bet
he's the one killed my Nolly."

The shouting and yelling built up to
tremendous cacophony.

"Shove a pole up his ass!"

Luck's expression was a grim mask as Jingen
dug in his heels, twisting and pulling. Each time he did this, Luck
jerked his tether until the boy came stumbling forward.

Snow began to fall in little flurries
drifting over the watchers, who were becoming tightly packed as
those in the rear pushed forward to see. Disharyl made her way to
the edge by clutching at Amiri and Randilyn. Her face filled with
rage and fear as she watched Luck force her boy toward the
leaders.

"I didn't do it! She's lying. I never
touched either of them!" Jingen's panicked motions grew more crazed
the nearer he got to Isranon.

"Not my boy!" Disharyl shrieked. "Please,
not my child! He didn't do it. He's a good boy."

She pulled loose from Amiri and Randilyn,
plunging into the aisle of onlookers. Disharyl rent her hair and
keened, running after Luck. She threw herself down in front of him.
"Don't take him."

"The decision's been made." Luck grimaced at
her in distaste. "It's Lord Dawnreturning's."

Disharyl ran ahead of them and threw herself
in front of Isranon at the foot of the dais. She clutched his
ankles. "Please, spare my son."

Isranon's stomach tightened at the sounds of
Jingen's shrieking. He watched Disharyl dash toward him, and he
remembered his dream from long ago in which Jingen and Stygean
killed him. When Disharyl threw herself in front of him and grasped
his ankles, he flinched and then stiffened, refusing to look at
her. "Take Disharyl aside and make certain she watches."

Gordain and a wolf named Torin yanked
Disharyl to her feet and dragged her to the side near the dais.
Gordain could not bear to watch her and lowered his eyes, although
he kept a tight hold upon her arm. It was Torin who changed
half-way and gripped her chin in his claw to force her head up as
she continued to keen and plead.

Isranon swept the onlookers with a hard eye.
"This will be a demonstration, for all who have not seen it before,
of how I deal with any sa'necari, child or adult, who transgresses
my laws. Jingen stands condemned of kidnapping with intentions to
violate both the mind and body of Chinisi Cordwainer and attempted
murder – it may yet become murder, as Stygean Loosestrife is not
expected to recover."

Chinisi gave a small sob, and Grygg's arm
tightened around her.

Isranon sucked in a deep breath.
"Furthermore, Jingen's essence has been matched to that found
inside Nolly. Therefore, it must be assumed that Jingen raped and
murdered her. Among the other sa'necari and vampire communities,
the deliberate death of a nibari is regarded as no more than the
killing of a dog or a cat. However, among those who travel with me,
the laws are different; as such, even a nibari's life has value and
meaning. Jingen will be treated, in this, as a murderer, not as a
violator of someone else's property."

Jun let out a howl of rage and lunged toward
the dais. "He killed my Nolly."

Haig and Garin grabbed Jun and held him back
until he calmed.

"Not my son! She was just a nibari."

"Silence her." Isranon gestured at the
lycans holding Disharyl.

Gordain stuffed a gag in her mouth and bound
it behind her head.

Luck reached the dais holding Jingen by one
arm while the boy jerked and twisted in his hands. The boy's eyes
bulged in panic.

It hurt Isranon to see the terror in
Jingen's eyes. He could taste Jingen's fear, and it soured in his
gut. The only time Isranon had attempted to discuss Jingen with
Disharyl, she had tried to seduce him. He never tried again.
Perhaps if he had, he would have caught the clues to what was
really going on with Jingen. Isranon remained uncertain of what he
could have done to bring Jingen around, even if he had known. He
had taken Jingen's pretense at face value. Isranon could barely get
his next words out and had to force his voice to be steady. "He is
yours, Anksha."

A collective gasp of anticipation went up as
Anksha crept down the steps, her tail lashing back and forth, and
descended to within a foot of Jingen. Luck released Jingen's
tether, kicked the boy onto his face, and retreated to get clear of
the area of effect before Anksha struck.

Jingen pushed himself up to flee, but he was
not fast enough. Anksha's pheromones swept over him and he stilled,
his expression glazed. The front of his pants tented with an
erection.

"Do you want me, Jingen?" she purred deep in
her throat, rolling the words from her lips.

"Yes, Anksha." He blinked dazedly, tilting
his head to the side to offer her his neck.

Anksha smiled, flashing her fangs and ran
her hands over his face. "Will you let me bite you?"

Jingen panted, his heart hammered, and he
gazed at her with longing. "Bite me."

"Can I drain you into death if I wish?"
Anksha's tone turned sensual. She threw Disharyl a look of venomous
contempt.

Jingen trembled, his lips parted and he
quoted an old poem. "Drain me into death. Still my heart with your
kiss."

Anksha pounced upon the boy, carrying him to
the ground, tearing his shirt with her claws as she straddled him.
He cried out when her fangs ripped into him and her power swept
through taking him mind, body and soul. Jingen screamed on and on,
writhing beneath her in torment. She snapped the Dominance Link
into place and savaged his mind so that he would remember the
lesson. The watchers looked sickened.

Lobelia paled, offended by the sensual
display in a pregnant female, and the violence that followed it.
Lord Dawnreturning's mate truly was a beast. She suspected that he
was also. And he was only a self-declared 'lord', he had not been
born to the title he had taken. Cordwainer was a fool to follow
him. Lobelia had wanted to remain comfortably behind in Ildyrsetts,
but her husband would have none of it. Her discovery of Disharyl
had mollified her a bit, reducing her disdain for the entire
endeavor to a manageable level.

She hoped that Stygean would die. Chinisi
was in love with him in a totally inappropriate manner. Lobelia had
been ready to introduce her into society; Chinisi was the daughter
she had never borne, having birthed two sons instead. Stygean had
endangered that, and now Cordwainer was talking about marrying
Chinisi off to the boy to save face and better their alliance to
Lord Dawnreturning. "I cannot handle this," she said to her husband
and walked away with him in tow.

Jun roared with fierce joy at Jingen's
screams. "Break him, Anksha! He killed my Nolly."

Amiri pushed through the crowd to stand
beside him, her expression dispassionate and clinical. "I compared
tissue samples, Jun. He did, indeed, kill Nolly as Isranon just
said."