The barriers opened, and he went in.
He didn't rummage through her thoughts or descend deeper than was necessary, despite his curiosity.
That would have been a shocking betrayal of the Blood's code of honor. And there was a strange, deep blankness to her mind that troubled him, a soft neutrality that he was sure hid something very different. He quickly found what he was looking for—the psychic thread that would vibrate in sympathy with a plucked, same-rank thread and would tell him what Jewels she wore, or would wear after her Birthright Ceremony. He began with the White, the lightest rank, and worked his way down, listening for the answering hum.
Hell's fire! Nothing. He hadn't expected anything until he'd reached the Red, but he'd expected a response at that depth. She had to wear Birthright Red in order to wear the Black after she made the Offering to the Darkness. Witch always wore the Black.
Without thinking, Saetan plucked the Black thread.
The hum came from below him.
Saetan released her hands, amazed that his own weren't shaking. He swallowed to get his heart out of his throat. "Have you had the Birthright Ceremony yet?"
Jaenelle drooped.
He gently lifted her chin. "Witch-child?"
Misery filled her sapphire eyes. A tear rolled down her cheek. "I f-failed the t-test. Does that mean I have to give the Jewels back?"
"Failed the— What Jewels?"
Jaenelle slipped her hand into the folds of her blue dress and pulled out a velvet bag. She upended it on the low table beside his chair with a proud but watery smile.
Saetan closed his eyes, leaned his head against the back of the chair, and sincerely hoped the room would stop spinning. He didn't need to look at them to know what they were: twelve uncut Jewels.
White, Yellow, Tiger Eye, Summer-sky, Purple Dusk, Blood Opal, Green, Sapphire, Red, Gray, and Ebon-gray.
No one knew where the Jewels had come from. If one was destined to wear a Jewel, it simply appeared on the Altar after the Birthright Ceremony or the Offering to the Darkness. Even when he was young, receiving an uncut Jewel—a Jewel that had never been worn by another of the Blood—was rare. His Birthright Red Jewel had been uncut. When he'd been gifted with the Black, it, too, had been uncut. But to receive an entire set of uncut Jewels . . . Saetan leaned over and tapped the Yellow Jewel with the tip of his nail. It flared, the fire in the center warning him off. He frowned, puzzled. The Jewel already identified itself as female, as being bonded to a witch and not a Blood male, but there was the faintest hint of maleness in it too. Jaenelle wiped the tears from her cheeks and sniffed.
"The lighter Jewels are for practice and everyday stuff until I'm ready to set these." She upended another velvet bag. The room spun in every direction. Saetan's nails pierced the leather arms of his chair.
Hell's fire, Mother Night, and may the Darkness be merciful!
Thirteen uncut Black Jewels, Jewels that already glittered with the inner fire of a psychic bond. Having a child bond with one Black Jewel without having her mind pulled into its depths was disturbing enough, but the inner strength required to bond and hold
thirteen
of them . . . Fear skittered up his spine, raced through his veins.
Too much power. Too much. Even the Blood weren't meant to wield this much power. Even Witch had never controlled this much power.
This one did. This young Queen. This daughter of his soul.
With effort, Saetan steadied his breathing. He could accept her. He could love her. Or he could fear her.
The decision was his, and whatever he decided here, now, he would have to live with.
The Black Jewels glowed. The Black Jewel in his ring glowed in answer. His blood throbbed in his veins, making his head ache. The power in those Jewels pulled at him, demanding recognition.
And he discovered the decision was an easy one after all—he had actually made it a long, long time ago.
"Where did you get these, witch-child?" he asked hoarsely.
Jaenelle hunched her shoulders. "From Lorn."
"L-Lorn?"
Lorn? That
was a name from the Blood's most ancient legends. Lorn was the last Prince of the Dragons, the founding race who had created the Blood. "How . . . where did you meet Lorn?"
Jaenelle withdrew further into herself.
Saetan stifled the urge to shake the answer out of her and let out a theatrical sigh. "A secret between friends, yes?"
Jaenelle nodded.
He sighed again. "In that case, pretend I never asked." He gently rapped her nose with his finger. "But that means you can't go telling him
our
secrets."
Jaenelle looked at him, wide-eyed. "Do we have any?"
"Not yet," he grumped, "but I'll make one up just so we do."
She let out a silvery, velvet-coated laugh, an extraordinary sound that hinted at the voice she'd have in a few years. Rather like her face, which was too exotic and awkward for her now, but, sweet Darkness, when she grew into that face!
"All right, witch-child, down to business. Put those away. You won't need them for this."
"Business?" she asked, scooping up the Jewels and tucking the bags into the folds of her dress.
"Your first lesson in basic Craft,"
Jaenelle drooped and perked up at the same time.
Saetan twitched a finger. A rectangular paperweight rose off the blackwood desk and glided through the air until it settled on the low table. The paperweight was a polished stone taken from the same quarry as the stones he'd used to build the Hall in this Realm.
Saetan positioned Jaenelle in front of the table. "I want you to point one finger at the paperweight. . . like this . . . and move it as far across the table as you can."
Jaenelle hesitated, licked her lips, and pointed her finger.
Saetan felt the surge of raw power through his Black Jewel.
The paperweight didn't move.
"Try again, witch-child. In the other direction."
Again there was that surge, but the paperweight didn't
move.
Saetan rubbed his chin, confused. This was simple Craft, something she shouldn't have any trouble with whatsoever.
Jaenelle wilted. "I try," she said in a broken voice. "I try and try, but I never get it right."
Saetan hugged her, feeling a bittersweet ache in his heart when her arms wrapped around his neck.
"Never mind, witch-child. It takes time to learn Craft,"
"Why can't I do it? All my friends can do it."
Reluctant to let her go, Saetan forced himself to hold her at arm's length. "Perhaps we should start with something personal. That's usually easier. Is there anything you have trouble with?"
Jaenelle fluffed her hair and frowned. "I always have trouble finding my shoes."
"Good enough." Saetan reached for his cane. "Put one shoe in front of the desk and then stand over there."
He limped to the far side of the room and stood with his back to Cassandra's portrait, grimly amused at giving his new Queen her first Craft lesson under the watchful but unknowing eyes of his last Queen.
When Jaenelle joined him, he said, "A lot of Craftwork requires translating physical action into mental action. I want you to imagine—by the way, how
is
your imagination?" Saetan faltered. Why did she look so bruised? He'd only meant to tease a little since he'd already seen that butterfly. "I want you to imagine picking up the shoe and bringing it over here. Reach forward, grasp, and bring it in."
Jaenelle stretched her arm as far as it would go, clenched her hand, and yanked.
Everything happened at once.
The leather chairs by the fire zipped toward him. He countered Craft with Craft and had a moment to feel shocked when nothing happened before one of the chairs knocked him off his feet. He fell into the other one and had just enough time to curl into a ball before the chair behind the blackwood desk slammed into the back of the chair he was in and came down on top of it, caging him. He heard leather-bound books whiz around the room like crazed birds before hitting the floor with a thump. His shoes pattered frantically, trying to escape his feet. And over all of it was Jaenelle wailing, "Stop stop stop!"
Seconds later, there was silence.
Jaenelle peered into the space between the chair arms. "Saetan?" she said in a small, quivery voice.
"Saetan, are you all right?"
Using Craft, Saetan sent the top chair back to the black-wood desk. "I'm fine, witch-child." He stuffed his feet into his shoes and gingerly stood up. "That's the most excitement I've had in centuries."
"Really?"
He straightened his black tunic-jacket and smoothed back his hair. "Yes, really." And Guardian or not, a man his age shouldn't
have
his heart gallop around his rib cage like this.
Saetan looked around the study and stifled a groan. The book that had been on the lectern hung in the air, upside down. The rest of the books formed drifts on the study floor. In fact, the only leather object that hadn't answered that summons was Jaenelle's shoe. "I'm sorry, Saetan."
Saetan clenched his teeth. "It takes time, witch-child." He sank into the chair. So much raw power but still so vulnerable until she learned how to use it. A thought shivered across his mind. "Does anyone else know about the Jewels Lorn gave you?"
"No." Her voice was a midnight whisper. Fear and pain filled her sapphire eyes, and something else, too, that was stronger than those surface feelings. Something that chilled him to the core.
But he was chilled even more by the fear and pain in her eyes.
Even a strong child, a powerful child, would be dependent on the adults around her. If her strength could unnerve
him,
how would her people, her family, react if they ever discovered what was contained inside that small husk? Would they accept the child who already was the strongest Queen in the history of the Blood, or would they fear the power? And if they feared the power, would they try to cut her off from it by breaking her?
A Virgin Night performed with malevolent skill could strip her of her power while leaving the rest intact.
But, since her inner web was so deep in the abyss, she might be able to withdraw far enough to withstand the physical violation—unless the male was able to descend deep enough into the abyss to threaten her even there.
Wasthere a male strong enough, dark enough, vicious enough?
There was . . . one.
Saetan closed his eyes. He could send for Marjong, let the Executioner do what was needed. No, not yet. Not to that one. Not until there was a reason. "Saetan?"
He reluctantly opened his eyes and watched, at first stupidly and then with a growing sense of shock, as she pushed up her sleeve and offered her wrist to him.
"There's no need for a blood price," he snapped. She didn't drop her wrist. "It will make you better."
Those ancient eyes seared him, stripped him of his flesh until he shivered, naked before her. He tried to refuse, but the words wouldn't come. He could smell the fresh blood in her, the life force pumping through her veins in counter-rhythm to his own pounding heart.
"Not that way," he said huskily, drawing her to him. "Not with me." With a lover's gentleness, he unbuttoned her dress and nicked the silky skin of her throat with his nail. The blood flowed, hot and sweet. He closed his mouth over the wound.
Her power rose beneath him, a slow, black tidal wave skillfully controlled, a tidal wave that washed over him, cleansed him, healed him even as his mind shuddered to find itself engulfed by a mind so powerful and yet so gentle. He counted her heartbeats. When he reached five, he raised his head. She didn't look shocked or frightened, the usual emotions the living felt when required to give blood directly from the vein.
She brushed a trembling finger against his lips. "If you had more, would it make you completely well?"
Saetan called in a bowl of warm water and washed the blood off her throat with a square of clean linen.
He wasn't about to explain to a child what those two mouthfuls of blood were already doing to him. He ignored the question, hoping she wouldn't press for an answer, and concentrated on the Craft needed to heal the wound.
"Would it?" she asked as soon as he vanished the linen and bowl.
Saetan hesitated. He'd given his word he wouldn't lie. "It would be better for the healing to take place a little at a time." That, at least, was true enough. "Another lesson tomorrow?"
Jaenelle quickly looked away.
Saetan tensed.
Had
she been frightened by what he'd done?
"I ... I already promised Morghann I'd see her tomorrow and Gabrielle the day after that."
Relief made him giddy. "In three days, then?"
She studied his face. "You don't mind? You're not angry?"
Yes, he minded, but that was a Warlord Prince's instinctive possessiveness talking. Besides, he had a lot to do before he saw her next. "I don't think your friends would care much for your new mentor if he took up all your time, do you?"
She grinned. "Probably not." The grin vanished. The bruised look was back in her eyes. "I have to go."
Yes, he had a great deal to do before he saw her next.
She opened the door and stopped. "Do you believe in unicorns?"
Saetan smiled. "I knew them once, a long time ago."
The smile she gave him before disappearing down the corridor lit the room, lit the darkest corners of his heart.
"Hell's fire! What happened, SaDiablo?"
Saetan waggled Jaenelle's abandoned shoe at Andulvar and smiled dryly."A Craft lesson."
"What?"
"I met the butterfly maker."
Andulvar stared at the mess. "She did this? Why?"
"It wasn't intentional, just uncontrolled. She isn't
cildru dyathe
either. She's a living child, a Queen, and she's Witch."
Andulvar's jaw dropped. "Witch? Like Cassandra was Witch?"
Saetan choked back a snarl. "Not like Cassandra but, yes, Witch."
"Hell's fire! Witch." Andulvar shook his head and smiled.
Saetan stared at the shoe. "Andulvar, my friend, I hope you've still got all that brass under your belt that you used to brag about because we're in deep trouble."