Saetan left the small apartment adjoining his private study, vigorously toweling his hair. His nostrils immediately flared and the line between his eyebrows deepened as he stared at the study door.
Harpies had a distinctive psychic scent, and this one, patiently waiting for him to acknowledge her presence, made him uneasy.
Returning to the bedroom, he dressed swiftly but carefully. When he was seated behind the blackwood desk, he released the physical and psychic locks on the door and waited.
Her silent, gliding walk brought her swiftly to the desk. She was a slender woman with fair skin, oversized blue eyes, delicately pointed ears, and long, fine, silver-blond hair. She was dressed in a forest-green tunic and pants with a brown leather belt and soft, calf-high boots. Attached to the belt was an empty sheath. She wore no Jewels, and the wound across her throat was testimony to how she had died. She studied him, as he studied her.
The tension built in the room.
Harpies were witches who had died by a male's hand.
No matter what race they originally came from, they were more volatile and more cunning than other demon-dead witches, and seldom left their territory, a territory that even demon-dead males didn't dare venture into. Yet she was here, by her own choice. A Dea al Mon Black Widow and Queen.
"Please be seated, Lady," Saetan said, nodding to the chair before the desk. Without taking her eyes off him, she sank gracefully into the chair. "How may I help you?"
When she spoke, her voice was a sighing wind across a glade. But there was lightning in that voice, too.
"Do you serve her?"
Saetan tried to suppress the shiver her words produced, but she sensed it and smiled. That smile brought his anger boiling to the surface. "I'm the High Lord, witch. I serve no one."
Her face didn't change, but her eyes became icy. "Hell's High Priestess is asking questions. That isn't good. So I ask you again,
High Lord,
do you serve her?"
"Hell has no High Priestess."
She laughed grimly. "Then no one has informed Hekatah of that small detail. If you don't serve, are you friend or enemy?"
Saetan's lip curled into a snarl. "I don't serve Hekatah, and while we were married once, I doubt she considers me a friend."
The Harpy looked at him in disgust. "She's important only because she threatens to interfere. The child, High Lord. Do you serve the child? Are you friend or enemy?"
"What child?" An icy dagger pricked his stomach.
The Harpy exploded from the chair and took a swift turn around the room. When she returned to the desk, her right hand kept rubbing the sheath as if searching for the knife that wasn't there.
"Sit down." When she didn't move, the thunder rolled in his voice. "Sit down." Hekatah was suspicious of recent activities, and rumors of a strange witch appearing and disappearing from the Dark Realm had sharpened her interest. But he had no control of where Jaenelle went or who she saw. If the Harpies knew of her, then who else knew? How long would it be before Jaenelle followed a psychic thread that would lead her straight into Hekatah's waiting arms? And was this Harpy a friend or an enemy? "The child is known to the Dea al Mon," he said carefully.
The Harpy nodded. "She is friends with my kinswoman Gabrielle."
"And Chaosti."
A cruel, pleased smile brushed her lips. "And Chaosti. He, too, is a kinsman."
"And you are?"
The smile faded. Cold hatred burned in her eyes. "Titian." She swept her eyes over his body and then leaned back in the chair. "The one who broke me ... he carries your family name but not your bloodline. I was barely twelve when I was betrayed and taken from Kaeleer. He took me for his amusement and broke me on his spear. But everything has a price. I left him a legacy, the only seed of his that will ever come to flower. In the end, he'll pay the debt to her. And when the time comes, she'll serve the young Queen."
Saetan exhaled slowly. "How many others know about the child?"
"Too many ... or not enough. It depends upon the game."
"This isn't a game!" He became very still. "Let me in."
Loathing twisted Titian's face.
Saetan leaned forward. "I understand why being touched by a male disgusts you. I don't ask this lightly
... or for myself."
Titian bit her lip. Her hands dug into the chair. "Very well."
Focusing his eyes on the fire, Saetan made the psychic reach, touched the first inner barrier, and felt her recoil. He patiently waited until she felt ready to open the barriers for him. Once inside, he drifted gently, a well-mannered guest. It didn't take long to find what he was looking for, and he broke the link, relieved.
They didn't know. Titian wondered, guessed too close. But no one outside his confidence knew for sure.
A strange child. An eccentric child. A mysterious, puzzling child. That would do. His wise, cautious child.
But he couldn't help wondering what experience had made her so cautious so young.
He turned back to Titian. "I'm teaching her Craft. And I serve."
Titian looked around the room. "From here?"
Saetan smiled dryly. "Your point's well taken. I've grown tired of this room. Perhaps it's time to remind Hell who rules."
"You mean who rules in proxy," Titian said with a predatory smile. She let the words linger for a moment. "It's good you're concerned, High Lord," she acknowledged reluctantly. "It's good she has so strong a protector. She's fearless, our Sister. It's wise to teach her caution. But don't be deceived. The children know what she is. She's as much their secret as their friend. Blood sings to Blood, and all of Kaeleer is slowly turning to embrace a single dark star."
"How do you know about the children?"Saetan asked suspiciously.
"I told you. I'm Gabrielle's kinswoman."
"You're dead, Titian. The demon-dead don't mingle with the living. They don't interfere with the concerns of the living Realms."
"Don't they, High Lord? You and your family still rule Dhemlan in Kaeleer." She shrugged. "Besides, the Dea al Mon aren't squeamish about dealing with those who live in the forever-twilight of the Dark Realm." Hesitating, she added, "And our young Sister doesn't seem to understand the difference between the living and the dead."
Saetan stiffened. "You think knowing me has confused her?"
Titian shook her head. "No, the confusion was there before she ever knew of Hell or met a Guardian.
She walks a strange road, High Lord. How long before she begins to walk the borders of the Twisted Kingdom?"
"There's no reason to assume she will," Saetan replied tightly.
"No? She will follow that strange road wherever it leads her. What makes you think a child who sees no difference between the living and the dead will see a difference between sanity and the Twisted Kingdom?"
"no!"Saetan leaped out of his chair and went to stand before the fire. He tried to suppress the thought of Jaenelle sliding into madness, unable to cope with what she was, but the anxiety rolled from him in waves.
No one else in the history of the Blood had worn the Black as a Birthright Jewel. No one else had had to shoulder the responsibility— and the isolation—that was part of the price of wearing so dark a Jewel at so young an age.
And he knew she had already seen things a child shouldn't see. He had seen the secrets and shadows in her eyes.
"Is there no one in Terreille you can trust to watch over her?"
Saetan let out a pained laugh. "Who would you trust, Titian?"
Titian rubbed her hands nervously on her trousers.
She was barely a woman when she died, he thought with tender sadness. So frail beneath all that strength. As they all are.
Titian licked her lips. "I know a Black-Jeweled Warlord Prince who sometimes looks after those who need help. If approached, he might—"
"No," he said harshly, pride warring with fear. How ironic that Titian considered Daemon a suitable protector. "He's owned by Hekatah's puppet, Dorothea. He can be made to comply."
"I don't believe he'd harm a child."
Saetan returned to his desk. "Perhaps not willingly, but pain can make a man do things he wouldn't willingly do."
Titian's eyes widened with understanding. "You don't trust him." She thought it over and shook her head.
"You're wrong. He's—"
"A mirror." Saetan smiled as she drew in a hissing breath. "Yes, Titian. He's blood of my blood, seed of my loins. I know him well . . . and not at all. He's a double-edged sword capable of cutting the hand that holds him as easily as he cuts the enemy." He led her to the door. "I thank you for your counsel and your concern. If you hear any news, I would appreciate being informed."
She turned at the doorway and studied him. "What if she sings to his blood as strongly as she sings to yours?"
"Lady." Saetan quietly closed the door on her and locked it. Returning to his desk, he poured a glass of yarbarah and watched the small tongue of fire dance above the desktop, warming the blood wine.
Daemon was a good Warlord Prince, which meant he was a dangerous Warlord Prince.
Saetan drained the glass. He and Daemon were a matched pair. Did he really believe his namesake was a threat to Jaenelle or was it jealousy over having to yield to a potential lover, especially when that lover was also his son? Because he honestly couldn't answer that question, he hesitated to give the order for Daemon's execution.
As yet there was no reason to send for Marjong the Executioner. Daemon was nowhere near Chaillot and, for some reason, Jaenelle didn't wander around Terreille as she did Kaeleer. Perhaps Titian was right about Daemon, but he couldn't take the chance. His namesake had the cunning to ensnare a child and the strength to destroy her.
But if Daemon had to be executed to protect Jaenelle, it wouldn't be a stranger's hand that put him in his grave, He owed his son that much.
1 / Kaeleer
Saetan smiled dryly at his reflection. His full head of black hair was more silvered at the temples than it had been five years ago, but the lines left in his face by illness and despair had softened while the laugh lines had deepened.
Turning from the mirror, he strolled the length of the second-floor gallery. His bad leg still stiffened if he walked too long, but he no longer needed that damned cane. He laughed softly. Jaenelle was a bracing tonic in more ways than one.
As he descended the staircase that ended in the informal reception room, he noticed the tall, slim woman watching him through narrowed eyes. He also noticed the ring of keys attached to her belt and felt relieved that finding the current housekeeper had been so easy.
"Good afternoon," he said pleasantly. "Are you Helene?"
"And what if I am?" She crossed her arms and tapped her foot.
Well, he hadn't expected an open-armed welcome, but still . . . He smiled at her. "For a staff who's had no one to serve for so long and so little incentive, you've kept the place quite well."
Helene's shoulders snapped back and her eyes glinted with anger. "We care for the Hall because it's the Hall." Her eyes narrowed even further. "And who are you?" she demanded.
He raised an eyebrow. "Who do you think I am?"
"An interloper, that's what I think," Helene snapped, placing her hands on her hips. "One of those who sneaks in here from time to time to gawk and 'soak up the atmosphere.' "
Saetan laughed. "They'd do well not to soak up too much of the atmosphere of this place. Although it was always calmer than its Terreille counterpart. I suppose after so many years away, I am an interloper of sorts, but . . ." He raised his right hand. As the Black Jewel in the ring flashed, there was an answering rumble from the stones of SaDiablo Hall.
Helene paled and stared at him.
He smiled. "You see, my dear, it still answers my call. And I'm afraid I'm about to wreak havoc with your routine."
Helen fumbled a low curtsy. "High Lord?" she stammered.
He bowed. "I'm opening the Hall."
"But . . ."
Saetan stiffened. "There's a problem with that?"
There was a gleam in Helene's gold eyes as she briskly wiped her hands on her large white apron. "A thorough cleaning will help, to be sure, but"—she looked pointedly at the drapes—"some refurbishing would help even more."
The tension drained out of him. "And give you something to be proud of instead of having to make do with an empty title?"
Helene blushed and chewed her lip.
Hiding a smile, Saetan vanished the drop cloths and studied the room. "New drapes and sheers definitely. With a good polishing, the wood pieces will still do, providing the preservation spells have held and they're structurally sound. New sofas and chairs. Plants by the windows. A few new paintings for the walls as well. New wallpaper or paint? What do you think?"
It took Helene a moment to find her voice. "How many rooms are you thinking of restoring?"
"This one, the formal receiving room across the hall, the dining room, my public study, my suite, a handful of guest rooms—and a special suite for my Lady."
"Then perhaps your Lady would like to oversee the redecorating."
Saetan looked at her with horrified amusement. "No doubt she would. However, my Lady will be twelve in four months, and I'd much prefer that she live in a suite I've decorated on her behalf than that I live in a Hall decorated with her somewhat . . . eclectic . . . tastes."
Helene stared at him for a moment but refrained from asking the question he saw in her eyes. "I could have some swatch books brought up to the Hall for you to choose from."
"An excellent idea, my dear. Do you think you can have this place presentable in four months?"
"The staff is rather small, High Lord," Helene said hesitantly.
"Then hire the help you need." Saetan strolled to the door that opened onto the great hall. "I'll meet you again at the end of the week. Is that sufficient time?"
"Yes, High Lord." She curtsied again.
Having been born in the slums of Draega, Hayll's capital, as the son of an indifferent whore, he'd never expected or wanted servants to grovel in his presence. He didn't mention this to Helene because, if he read her right, that was the last curtsy he would ever receive.