Leoht (BloodRunes: Book 3) (16 page)

The man shifted his weight uncomfortably. “We
were too surprised and caught up with fending off the attack…” he
grasped at reasons for the event, “they had several strong mages
attacking us from afar, our attention was diverted to finding
them.”

Nathair stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Lucky
for you,” he paused, waving his hand at the man, and waiting for
him to fill in his name.

“Magi Elmest of the Temple of Naoham,
Sire.”

“Lucky for you, Elmest, this actually
presents us with a unique opportunity. You see, the enemy believes
that they have subdued our men, when in fact, were they just to be
given the order to do so, they would break free or die in the
process. Every single one of them. Can you imagine what kind of
havoc we could cause? How many men were in that unit?”

“Three hundred, Sire.”

“Three hundred men that will fight to their
death if we simply give them the word.” He paused for a moment in
thought. “Where’s the nearest Wing to yours?”

The mage scrunched up in nose, trying to
remember, and answered finally, “The Second, another few leagues
north.”

“And is theirs the same size?”

“Yes, Sire, another three hundred men, a
dozen mages, and twenty or so beasts.”

“Excellent. Where is your currier?”

The mage looked relieved that he had gotten
this far alive and Nathair gave him an evil grin. He hurried off to
get the messenger. Nathair hastily drew up his plans to have it
‘leaked’ to the enemy that another unit would be on the march soon
near the border. Hopefully, the Treymaynians would take the bait
and add another three hundred enemy time-bombs into their midst.
Then, when the time was right, he would give them the order to kill
as many as they could and cause as much destruction to the camp as
they fought their way free. It was likely to be very costly to the
lives of those men, but it would be worth it to enjoy the surprise
massacre.

Once the affairs of the army were taken care
of, Nathair turned his attention to other matters. He hadn’t been
able to contact Katya last night when he’d made the attempt, and he
hoped that everything was alright. There was nothing he could do
about that until this evening, however, so instead he decided to
make it a point to check in with Devon about Jezebel’s progress.
Hopefully she’d been able to figure out the medallion he had sent
to her, and maybe even made some headway towards finding one of the
books.

He sequestered himself into his personal tent
and tied the flap shut and sealing off the place with a spell. The
tent may not look like a secure location, but with all of the wards
and shields he had on it, a person would find it much more
difficult to get in than it looked.

He pulled out a mirror and called to Devon
through it. Knowing that the man may be engaged in something where
Jezebel could observe him, he sat back to await his answering call.
It wasn’t too long before Devon’s gaunt face appeared before
him.

“You don’t look well,” Nathair commented.

“Jezebel’s been a little too excited to try
out one of the new spells she just learned,” Devon retorted
bitterly.

“New spell? Does that mean you found a book?”
Nathair asked excitedly.

“Three in fact. She doesn’t exactly trust me
anymore, but I believe that somehow she figured out how the disc
worked and it led us to three different locations. Then we found
the key,” Devon looked confused for a moment before finishing,
“somewhere, and she’s been too busy reading the books and using
their information to find and kill Layna -”

“What?!” Nathair cut him off. “She’s reading
the books herself? How did she open them?”

“I don’t really know, somehow we came across
a key, but I can’t remember exactly how or where…things have been a
little complicated with her lately though, so she hasn’t exactly
been sharing everything.”

“Fine. But what’s this about killing Layna?
That’s not what she’s supposed to be doing. She’s supposed to be
finding information for you to report back to me! Isn’t that why
you are there?” Nathair glared at the man. The fact that she was
reading the books was disturbing, but at least she was going after
Layna and not himself. He was sure that Layna could protect herself
against Jezebel’s sorry efforts.

“I can’t explain her sudden change, we were
doing so well and she seemed focused on the books, but then all of
a sudden something happened and it just clicked in her mind that
she wanted the girl more.”

That sounded awfully suspicious to Nathair.
“And what have you been doing to dissuade her of this?” he
demanded.

“It’s complicated,” Devon said through
clenched teeth, and whatever it was that was complicating matters,
Nathair could tell that he didn’t like it

“Well, explain it to me.”

“She found the spell for a life-sucker in one
of the books,” Devon said, “and she’s been suspicious of my
loyalties ever since she regained her memories. She decided that it
would be a fitting way to prove my devotion.”

“She put a life-sucker on you?” Nathair asked
incredulously.

“And every time I try and convince her to do
something other than kill the girl she uses it on me.” That
explained his less-than-healthy appearance.

“Do you have the books for me at least?”

“Yes,” Devon pouted, “but the moment she
discovers them missing she’ll take it out on me. She’s going to
kill me one of these times.”

“Oh, don’t pretend that you don’t like it,”
Nathair taunted him. This could be a problem, however, Jezebel’s
sudden change of heart was suspicious and Nathair needed Devon with
her as his eyes and ears, it simply wouldn’t do to have him killed.
He drummed his fingers on the table before him. Jezebel’s mind was
weak, easy to subvert. Was this a weakening of his own control,
leaving her to revert back to old vengeances, or was it someone
else taking advantage of her? But who else would want Layna dead?
And why?

“Have there been any strange occurrences?
What is Treymayne doing to prepare for war?”

Devon filled him in on the goings-on around
the capital, including an assassination attempt that had been made
against Layna that had nothing to do with Jezebel.
Well, that
cinches it, there is someone else after her after all. But the
question remains: Why?
Nathair took a few minutes to let all of
the information sink in before addressing Devon again.

“Alright, don’t send the books yet, I don’t
want her to become suspicious, nor do I want her killing my prize
informant.” Devon looked relieved. “I’ll look into getting the rune
removed, but until then I want you to take the stone I gave you,
and I want you to prick your finger and let a drop of blood soak
into it. Then recite these words,” Nathair gave him the spell that
would tie the stone to him. Devon repeated the words several times
to commit them to memory and Nathair nodded in satisfaction. “That
will allow you to draw strength from the stone. It still won’t save
you if she’s hell-bent on draining you, but it should help keep her
from getting over-zealous. Just try and act weaker than you
actually are or she’ll drain you farther.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Don’t bother trying to
convince Jezebel of anything either, I have a feeling her mind
can’t be changed. Just sit tight until I tell you what to do.”
Nathair broke the connection. He wasn’t sure how he felt about
people trying to kill Layna. He had spent so much time wanting to
possess her…but now he had Katya, and after all, Layna was the one
who was planning on killing him. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if
she were to be taken out. It was really Katya who he needed.

He returned to his room at the palace, he
needed to do some thinking.

CHAPTER 10

“There are a group of men up ahead,” Gryffon
whispered to her, pointing. They had spent several days not
speaking more than two words to one another since the day that
Layna had discovered she was no more to him than a way to save the
world, but they were beginning to fall back into more normal
conversation.

“Theirs or ours?” she whispered back, aware
of the irony in this seeing as how technically she and Gryffon were
on different sides.

“Ours I think, but I can’t be sure. I think
it’s best to simply avoid them.”

“I agree, did you want to use magic to create
an illusion and simply walk through, or find another way
around?”

“We have no way of knowing if there are mages
in this group, or mages watching this group. It’d be safer if we
avoid them and the use of magic.”

Layna nodded. They slunk back through the
shadows to where they had left Axe and Fly to scout ahead and she
grabbed Fly’s reins. He whickered to her softly, seeming to
understand the need for quiet, and the two of them led the horses
on foot, backtracking to where the trail had split. They had
already scouted ahead on the fork and had hoped that the way they
had just come from would be open. They were now forced down a
rather treacherous path. It was too bad that they couldn’t simply
transport directly to the palace and then out again, but that would
leave her so drained that if any complications arose, she would be
unable to do so much as lift a finger. And if they transported in
closer to the palace and then walked the rest of the way, it would
broadcast their position to the hundreds of mages that were
watching for that kind of activity. Both countries were on
high-alert now that reports of actual fighting had been received
and it meant that she and Gryffon were walking into a war zone.

She glanced up at Gryffon and felt a
tightening in her chest. She had told him about the Three’s
information concerning the life-sucker, but unfortunately since
neither of them had a clue as to Jezebel’s whereabouts at the
moment, they had no better course of action than to follow their
current plan. And hope that the drains he had been feeling were not
a conscious act on her part. At least, if she had discovered what
she had done, she either didn’t intend to or hadn’t figured out yet
how to drain him all the way yet. Layna supposed that was a good
thing. But it was also stressful, wondering when and if he might
suddenly be affected by it.

Unfortunately, the fork in the path had been
quite a ways back, and they ended up wasting a few hours on the
wrong one. Just as they were nearing where the paths had split,
Layna heard a voice she had never wanted to hear again.

“What on earth are they doing out in the
middle of the woods like this?” Jezebel’s grating voice could be
heard in the distance. A lowered voice answered her and seemed to
try and make her keep her own softer. She caught Gryffon’s eye and
the two of them quietly stepped off the path, hiding the horses
deeper into the woods before creeping back towards the path to
observe their passing.

Jezebel was still complaining, “You’d think
they could find an inn like civilized people, not force me to soil
myself in the outdoors like this.” Layna could imagine her sticking
her pointed nose into the air. “We’ll have to transport back to
that last town we passed after we kill her,” Jezebel sniffed,
talking over her shoulder to none other than Devon. He was looking
worse for wear than usual and wore a miserable expression at having
to travel with the woman. Layna would feel sorry for him, but she
was still stuck on the words that had just come out of Jezebel’s
mouth. She was
still
trying to kill her? And tracking her
down to do it? Didn’t this woman have anything better to do?

Layna touched Gryffon’s arm gently, sending a
tingle up her spine, and she leaned over to whisper in his ear.
“Guess we don’t have to worry about how to find her to get rid of
the rune,” she’d resorted to calling it simply ‘the rune’ rather
than his life-sucker as this seemed to be easier for him to talk
about, “she’s following us,” Layna commented wryly. “Should we take
care of it now?”

Gryffon held her eyes for a moment, and with
her hand still lying on his arm, Layna felt all of the emotions
she’d tried to suppress coming crashing back. She hastily removed
her hand and looked down as he answered. “No, too dangerous. It’s
too close to that group of soldiers. With Jezebel’s powers returned
she’s not smart enough to refrain from using them and attracting
the bunch of them. We’d do better to wait for the right
opportunity.” He smiled at Layna, the first time in days and she
warmed. “And besides, like you said, we don’t have to worry since
she’s
following
us
.”

They let the pair pass them and waited until
Jezebel’s haughty complaints could no longer be heard. Leading the
horses back onto the path and mounting, Layna commented, “Good
thing we decided to turn around. How do you suppose she’s planning
on killing me this time?” She surprised herself with the calm that
she felt contemplating it and realized with pleasure that the woman
no longer held any sort of hold over her fear. Layna wasn’t
frightened of the threat of her wrath, and she didn’t think that it
was simply because her powers had grown enough that she knew she
could handle herself.

-
You’ve finally realized what
a strong, intelligent, and capable woman you really
are
.
- commented Kai and Layna blushed at the compliment,
but refrained from responding. She didn’t want to make Gryffon
uncomfortable if he happened to look at her.

Gryffon had spent a moment contemplating her
previous question and now he turned the corners of his mouth down
and shrugged. “Who knows what that crazy witch has going on in her
head. Seeing as how she’s regained the use of her power and we are
no longer within the confines of society where she has to resort to
trickery, I would guess she’s planning a full-on magical assault.
Which would be stupid of her. And probably exactly what she’ll
do.”