High Demon 3 - Demon's King (10 page)

"My sources say that Reah Desh looked very much like her mother, but we cannot find any vid-photos to verify that and we have not been able to research her records. Regardless, we believe she is still alive somewhere and it is our hope that grandfather and granddaughter may someday be reconciled. This is Hild Marolla, reporting live from Tulgalan
.
"

"Jusef, pack. We are going to Tulgalan immediately." Denevik ordered. Jusef was nearly as shocked by the vid as Denevik had been. Jusef was Amterean and had cooked and cleaned for Denevik for more than one hundred turns. He knew all of Denevik's secrets. Except for this one, and even Denevik hadn't known it.

"We won't be going to the news-vids or that stupid journalist. We'll be doing the tracking ourselves, starting with Addah Desh, I think." A curl of smoke drifted from Denevik's nostrils. He knew not to contact anyone who might put his face on the news-vids. If Jaydevik or any of his captains happened to see his image, then his life would be over. Denevik wanted to see his granddaughter before that happened.

"Go ahead and pack your bags, but you will not be going to Tulgalan." Someone else appeared inside Denevik's rented kitchen.

"Lord Kifirin," Denevik went to his knees and bowed his head.

"One of the two remaining who know to bow to me," Kifirin remarked, lifting Denevik to his feet.

"Then where should I go? I want to find my granddaughter."

"Then you must go to Campiaa. But you will not identify yourself to her right away. This is what you must do instead." Denevik listened carefully as Kifirin laid out his instructions.

* * *

"Reah, I've hired two new people—one will work as a new bodyguard for me, the other will help Marc in the kitchen," Teeg announced over breakfast. He and the warlocks were going back to question the two prisoners. So far Teeg hadn't gleaned as much information as he might like from them, so another round of intense questioning was about to follow. Jes, who was happy to have me back so he could do more rehabilitation, was going to make me do my exercises out by the pool again. The whole thing made me sigh as I sipped my protein jumble. Jes had added a powdered vitamin mix to the protein and berries.

"It will help you recover faster," he'd informed me. I thought things were coming along fine but Jes was the physician. I didn't argue with him.

The two new hires were introduced during the midday meal—the bodyguard was tall, with dark hair and green eyes. The cook's assistant was Amterean. I went to him immediately and took his hand when it was offered. Yes, I thought of Master Morwin the whole time.

Morwin still lived on Le-Ath Veronis—though his job as Gavril's tutor had officially ended the moment Gavril had been accepted into the private college off-world. We'd become good friends, Morwin and I. Now I was introduced to Jusef, who smiled at me and wiggled his bushy brown eyebrows. Lenden Stone, the bodyguard, looked sad when I took his hand. I squeezed his fingers—there wasn't any need for sadness. Teeg seemed to be a good employer. None that I'd seen had any complaints, if you discounted Ardalin. She'd been in love with him and insanely jealous. Mostly insane, though. She was gone. I hoped for good.

"This is my wife, Reah," Teeg had done the introductions. Lenden nodded respectfully to me.

"What is this we are eating?" Jusef took one bite of the yaris fish and closed his eyes in pleasure.

"My wife would qualify as a master cook," Teeg sounded proud. I didn't know what to say. I'd never get the chance to qualify. Not from here. I still had no idea what Teeg's long-term plans were—for me or for Gavril. I wanted mindspeech back so badly I could have screamed with the frustration. Skipping might have been an added bonus. Teeg held both of those things in check with a tiny transmitter.

"This is yaris fish with my own sauce recipe," I said. Lenden took a bite and then blinked at me in surprise.

"Excellent," he nodded, lowering his eyes. Marc had helped me make it; Jes had nearly worn me out with the morning's workout.

"You will teach me this?" Jusef sounded hopeful.

"I'll think about it—it's a closely guarded secret," I smiled at the Amterean dwarf.

"When did you start cooking?" Jes was pushing my knees up to stretch the muscles in my legs.

"When I was eight. Edan shoved me into the kitchen to clean but I was watching one of my uncles make pastry. I learned pastry making from Ilvan. In between sweeping the floors and doing dishes after I got out of day class, that is. That's when I still thought Edan was my brother." I grunted as Jes pushed my thigh muscles to the limit before letting the leg back down.

"Reah, you couldn't have been bigger than a tick, how did he abuse that?"

"People often do things that others find impossible," I said. As an ASD operative, I'd seen my share of it. The worst had been a crime kingpin who'd forced his oldest daughter into an incestuous relationship and then had children with her. He was looking to have the same sort of relationship with his oldest granddaughter when we caught up with him. Tory had nearly ripped the man's arm off when he'd tried to escape. Lendill and Norian hadn't even turned a hair over that. The criminal had been sent to Evensun. He probably hadn't survived that.

"What about you? I asked.

"I loved my parents," Jes told me. "And they loved me. I wasn't married—went off-world to study medicine and decided to stay. By the time we really understood that my world was dying, it was quarantined. Nobody could get on or off. It died a quick death, Reah. If I could have paid the black-market traffickers, I might have been able to get my family away from there. I didn't have the money. They're all dead, thanks to Zellar."

"I imagine he has a lot to answer for, if people really do answer for those sorts of things," I said. I was thinking about Kifirin and wondering if he ever involved himself in anything like that.

"The gods are a myth," Jes grumbled.

"Well, hold onto that thought." I patted his arm while he pushed up my other knee.

Chapter 5
 

"I can't believe he let me go without him," I said. Farzi, Nenzi and Lenden were with me as I walked down a pedestrian street filled with upscale shops. I had a credit chip bracelet too, and Teeg had told me to buy anything I wanted.

"He not wish to lose you," Farzi pointed out.

"I not wish that either," Nenzi grinned. I gave him a hug.

"I have no desire to lose sight of you either," Lenden offered. I looked up into his green eyes. They were nearly the same color as mine. Well, he was my bodyguard for the day—Teeg was paying him not to lose sight of me.

"Nenzi needs haircut," Nenzi stopped outside a hairdresser's shop.

"Then we'll get you a haircut," I pulled him inside. Farzi and Lenden were forced to follow. Just to make things look normal, I got my hair washed and my bangs trimmed.

"Where did these scars come from?" My hairdresser had found Tory's claiming marks.

"That's a long story," I said. I wasn't about to tell her anything about them. She shrugged and kept washing my hair. Farzi and Lenden sat off to the side, watching while Nenzi and I were worked on at the same time. It wasn't until we sat down at a sidewalk café later to have a cool drink that Lenden voiced his question.

"Who gave you those marks?" He whispered while Farzi and Nenzi went to the counter for refills.

"I won't be giving that information," I said. I wasn't sure Teeg even knew what they were and I certainly wasn't going to give him more information to harm anyone else I knew. I hadn't gotten any updated information on Gavril either, and didn't know if I were brave enough to ask. Teeg hadn't mistreated me and I hoped that went for Gavril too. I had no idea if Gavril might attempt to escape—he was perhaps the brightest person I'd ever met. I was praying that Teeg remembered he was only seventeen when it came to Chash's treatment.

Lenden didn't push it, but something bothered me about his question. I didn't puzzle it out until later. Nenzi bought two chips containing repair manuals for vehicles. That was the day I learned that Nenzi oversaw Teeg's fleet of vehicles. I was happy for him—it was something he always wanted. Farzi had taken over guest services at the casinos Teeg had inherited from Arvil. He made sure complaints were handled and the staff treated the guests well. He brought recommendations to Teeg if anyone needed to be fired for their actions.

The other reptanoids were employed here and there within Teeg's empire. Darzi and Chazi ran the shuttle station. Perzi and Yanzi handled supply requisition. Bekzi and Hirzi supervised the farming now done on Campiaa—before, none had even considered running farms there. Plenty of good farmland lay to the east of Campiaa City. Teeg had brought in equipment and experienced help. Now the farms were thriving and the casinos got fresh fruit and vegetables. I was amazed at how industrious and progressive-minded Teeg had been.

"We still have to import oxberries." Farzi wasn't thrilled about that.

"I have it on good authority that it takes a special kind of soil for those berries," I said. "Word has it that the imports everybody gets from Le-Ath Veronis are only possible because they bought truckloads of soil from the southern continent on Kifirin," I said. "Otherwise, Kifirin is the only world I know that has the right kind of ground to grow the berries."

"Have you been there? To Kifirin?" Lenden wanted to know.

"No," I answered truthfully. The ASD had always interfered with any plans I might make to go there. Tory intended to take me and show me the palace in Veshtul when my stint with the ASD was over. Gavril wanted to go with us, so we'd made tentative plans. Now, all that might just be something we dreamed about. I missed Tory with an ache in my heart. Aurelius, too. Lendill—we'd barely gotten to know each other outside being Vice-Director and employee. He wanted to take me to meet his father. Now, none of them knew if I were alive.

"Teeg moves us tomorrow," Farzi announced when we finished our drinks. "If Reah needs something to take, she should buy now."

I blinked stupidly at Farzi—when had this been decided? "Farzi, where are we going? What will the weather be like?"

"Hot, where we go. No sleeves best." Farzi wasn't comfortable giving me orders and it affected his speech.

"Farzi," I leaned over and kissed his cheek, "you don't have to worry about upsetting me. I'll still love you, Nenzi and the others, even if I'm mad at the time."

"But Teeg say you be upset about moving."

"Probably, but I'll be upset with him, not you. How's that?" Nenzi was leaning closer to me. "You want a kiss too?" Nenzi grinned. He got his kiss on the cheek. We went shopping for sleeveless shirts and shorts after that. Jes' workouts must have produced muscle I didn't have before—clothes fit tighter so I got different sizes. I certainly had more muscle and definition in my legs now. I bought sandals for all of us, Lenden included, when he said he was coming along. He was surprised that I'd even think of it.

"Well, you need something too, don't you think?" I looked up at him. He just shrugged. "Besides, Teeg's paying." I grinned and flipped the chip bracelet on my wrist.

"Now see, Farzi was supposed to tell you so you'd be over your mad by the time you got back," Teeg said. He was pulling his shirt off to go shower—he was taking me to dinner. Kiasz was going to cook for us and we'd be served in one of the private rooms in the restaurant.

"You wanted me to be mad at Farzi instead?" I had my hands on my hips.

"No, I just thought you'd be calmer if the news came from him." Teeg let his pants drop. The underwear followed. At least he picked up after himself.

"You're not going to tell me where we're going?"

"No. I may not tell you when we get there. You might figure it out for yourself, though."

"Great." I flopped onto the bed, feeling a snit coming on.

"Reah." Teeg came over and pulled me up again. Leaned down to kiss me. His naked body was telling me what it wanted, even if he never said. We were nearly late getting to dinner.

* * *

Teelas. That's where we landed. It was hard to wrap my head around the fact that it actually existed. Hot as a desert most of the time; the rains came in late afternoon or early evening. If it were hot enough, the cold rain hitting the hot stones that made up the roadways often steamed and sizzled as it hit.

Teelas was a paradox. Tales said that it was created by wizardry of some sort. Lush trees and plants grew in small oases around the equator, where most of the population lived. Of that population, which numbered around ten million, two-thirds held some sort of power. Rogue wizards or warlocks found it easy to blend in, there. Teeg must have gotten information from the two he'd captured, leading us to Teelas. The two captives were already gone when we left for Teelas—I had no idea what Teeg had done with them.

All four of Teeg's warlocks were with us and quite happy to be on Teelas. Farzi and Nenzi had come—the other reptanoids had stayed on Campiaa. Lenden, Jusef, Marc and Jes made up the rest of our party.

"Little girl, do you remember anything about your mother?" Lenden sat down heavily at the bar that fronted a spacious kitchen; Teeg had rented a spacious, well-appointed home for us. I handed Lenden an iced fruit juice blend and he sipped it as he watched me prepare other drinks for Jusef and Marc.