Leoht (BloodRunes: Book 3) (7 page)

“Get this filth off of me at once!” she
demanded, holding the offending appendages out to him.

“And how do you propose that I do that?” he
asked with an insubordinate twinge of sarcasm.

She screamed and stamped her foot. She had
been so excited to have found the ruins that she’d actually put her
hands in dirt! She turned around and wiped them off on the front of
Devon’s shirt. Served him right for talking to her in such a way.
She turned and stalked off calling back over her shoulder, “Just
uncover that opening!” She snatched a cloth out of their saddlebags
and meticulously scrubbed at her hands, lamenting over the broken
nail while behind her she heard Devon’s grunting and was satisfied
that he was at least doing as he was told.

She hadn’t imagined that once she located the
area that the books were hidden that they’d be literally buried.
She’d imagined that they would more appear out of thin air when she
stepped in the right spot, or that she’d just waltz into a manor
and demand it. Perhaps she would have been better off choosing one
of them that was contained in a library or manor to start, people
were much easier to deal with than, than,
nature
.

When she had finally filed her nail into a
more respectable shape, though woefully shorter than the others,
she checked on Devon’s progress. He was sweating through his shirt,
and though she wrinkled her nose in disgust at the smell, she did
have to admit that he looked rather strapping with his muscles
bulging and -
stop that!
She ordered herself. “Well?” she
asked him as he paused in his labor to look up at her.

“I think I’ve managed to uncover it enough to
slip through. I’m not sure what it looks like below though, so you
might want to wait for me to check it out first.”

Jezebel bristled, was he trying to get the
book for himself? “No, I don’t think that will be necessary,” she
told him sharply, pushing him aside to look into the opening.
Indeed, it did seem to be a tight squeeze and from above she
couldn’t see more than the steps descending into the earth. She
took a deep breath and picked up her skirts, stepping into the
black abyss. They needed to hurry this along to make it back to the
inn in time for her to take a long -a
very
long - bath to
rid her of the grime of the day. She lit a ball of fire in front of
her to see by and tried to avoid touching the sides of the walls.
Why someone had felt the need to hide the book in such a disgusting
place was beyond her.

At the bottom of the steps a long hallway
went for about fifty feet and abruptly turned to the left. She
followed it and heard Devon behind her. That was fine as long as he
remembered his place. The dark seemed to close in around her and
she slowed her pace, allowing him to catch up. Not that she needed
him…

The second hallway ended in a large arced
wooden door which Jezebel unlocked with a spell. She touched the
handle and was immediately shocked with the remnants of an age-old
pain spell. She sucked in her breath and flexed her hand a few
times to rid it of the tingles as the spell dispersed.
As if
that little show is going to stop ME.
She put her hand back on
the handle and opened it roughly.

A loud snarling met them and Jezebel shrank
back in fear, the sound bringing forth memories of her near-death
experience with the hellhounds. Her back hit the wall and she froze
in panic. Devon stepped forward, drawing his sword and barked at
her, “Put the light in there so I can see what I’m fighting.”
Jezebel just stared straight ahead until something lashed out at
them, grazing Devon’s shoulder and he cursed. “Jezebel!” he shouted
at her, and she jumped, shoving the fire into the room. It
illuminated a hideous creature with three snarling dog-like heads
spitting and snapping at them. Jezebel shrank back farther into the
wall, pressing her body up against it as though she could will
herself to melt into it.

Devon stepped forward and slashed at one of
the heads, neatly cleaving it off of the body. The head bounced and
rolled across the ground, but the creature hardly batted an eye,
instead growing two more in its place. “Um…” Devon said, backing up
a pace, “Jezebel, we could really use some of that angry magic
right about now.”

Jezebel continued to stare straight ahead,
locked in her terror and beginning to hyperventilate. Devon picked
up a bone from the piles of them on the floor and waved it in front
of the creature. Half of the heads stopped snarling and watched it
with two pairs of eyes, one of the tongues even lolling out of a
newly-formed head. The other two refused to be distracted.
Apparently brains were slower to form. Devon threw it and the body
jerked whilst half its brains tried to get it to run and the other
half held its ground.

Devon touched her arm, “Jezebel, I understand
why you’re afraid, but I really need you to snap out of it.
Remember how Gryffon flaunted his affair with that whore right
under your nose, and the King is not even royal blood but pretends
to be better than you? And what about your father who tried to use
your blood bond to control you?”

Jezebel glared at him, rage bubbling up
within her, “How dare you bring all of that up!” she shrieked, “I
should end you right now for that!”

“How about you end that horrible monstrosity
behind us instead?”

Jezebel realized that he had meant to
infuriate her and glared at him again, though grudgingly admitted
that the rage had indeed burned away a fair amount of her fright.
Enough to allow her to gather her wits about her and form a ball of
pure energy to hurl at the thing. Not a moment too soon, just as it
was leaping for them, and the ball hit it squarely in the
chest.

Unfortunately, its momentum still carried it
towards them even after impact and as the creature exploded into a
thousand tiny gooey bits, it sprayed them both with a mass of
bloody slime. They stood there for a moment with their eyes closed
and Jezebel clenched her teeth before wiping the gore from her
face.

“This,” she said slowly, “had better be worth
it.”

They carefully picked their way around the
mess after cleaning themselves off the best they could and searched
the room it had been guarding. It was filled with many more remains
than that of just the beast they had just taken care of. Devon
picked up a bone from a particularly dense section of them and
looked up where there was an opening in the ceiling through which
the afternoon sun was shining a thin ray of light in at them.

“Someone’s been feeding it,” he stated,
dropping the bone back into the pile.

“Who cares,” Jezebel said, waving away the
observation, “just help me find the book. It must be in some sort
of nook or cranny in here somewhere. You don’t have something like
that
,” she glanced back at the remains of the beast and gave
an involuntary shudder, “guarding nothing.”

Devon went on stubbornly, “If someone was
feeding it, someone might notice that it’s gone, and notice that
the book is gone.”

Jezebel was still not impressed and paused in
her search to fix him with a stare. “And by then,
we’ll
be
gone.”

Devon finally let the matter drop and helped
her look around. Just as Jezebel’s patience for the task was
beginning to wane, they came across a carving in the back wall. It
was the exact size of the disc and had markings just like on the
back of it. She smiled and looked to Devon who seemed to be
thinking the same thing. She reached into her pocket and withdrew
the disc, setting it gently into place. When nothing happened at
first, she rotated it and was rewarded by a blue flashing glow.

Something clicked softy and the sound of
grating rocks filled the chamber. A door slid away and a small
alcove came into existence. Inside was a pedestal holding a large,
leather-bound tome. Jezebel reverently removed it, and in her awe
failed to notice the faint sound of a latch being tripped.

She put a finger to either side of the brass
buckle holding a strap of leather around the book, pushing each
side of it simultaneously, but it was locked. She sighed irritably.
Just her luck. Never mind though, it would be much more satisfying
to look it over once she was back in the comfort of her room and
had had a good soak to get rid of the muck of the day anyway. She
held out her hand to Devon who gave her the sack they had brought
for the purpose and carefully tucked her treasure inside.

Their departure from the ruin and the trip
back to their lodging was uneventful other than the icky feel of
drying goo congealing onto her skin. Jezebel deposited her prize in
the room and made straight for the bath, dumping her clothes with
one of the maids and telling her to keep them. No amount of washing
would entice her to wear the entrails of that beast ever again. The
girl looked at the clothes and back to Jezebel in horror. Jezebel
smiled cruelly, she would have loved to have known what was going
through that little brain as she hurried away with the
flesh-streaked dress.

She lowered herself into the tub and
delighted in the feel of the water; her skin, which had been
crawling with itches as the goo dried upon it, slowly began to feel
more normal. At first it got slimly once again, but then finally
washed all the way clean. She drained one bath and took another
before she felt totally free of the filth. Pulling on fresh
clothing, she made her way to the dining hall for dinner.

Devon was already there and he motioned for
her to come sit with him. She obliged and was happy to find that he
had already ordered for them so the food came not a minute after
she arrived.

“Are you going to tell me what you’re looking
for?” Devon asked her once the serving girl had moved out of
hearing.

“You know what we’re looking for,” she
answered, taking a bite of the roast beef, “we found one of them
today.”

“That’s not what I mean. Ever since the day
you regained your powers, you’ve been,” he paused, as if searching
for the word, “different.”

“Well of course I am,” she sniped at him, “I
am finally whole again.”

“But what are you hoping to gain by gathering
all these books?”

She looked around them, feeling paranoid, but
brushed it aside. The fact that they were gathering books revealed
nothing to anyone listening. “They are going to help me show those
people who have crossed me that it was not a very smart thing for
them to have done. And then, I might even destroy the King.”

“The King?” Devon asked and she mentally
berated herself for giving this information away. She wasn’t yet
convinced Devon was really on her side and not still working for
the vile man. But no matter, she had one of the books, nineteen
more to go…

*

Ranis flinched as one of the books’ alarms
was suddenly activated. The tome in the ruin of Alberta was being
stolen. She growled under her breath. This was just what they
needed. The girl who could potentially ruin hundreds worth of years
of planning was on the loose and now the sacred tombs were being
disturbed. She needed to finish what she was doing at the moment,
but now she would have to find time to get there to investigate in
addition to everything else.

As soon as she could get away, she closed her
eyes and pictured the place. And was abruptly there. The empty
alcove was open, and the remains of the guardian were spewed across
the hallway. Obviously someone with a fair amount of power. Could
it be the girl? She walked over to the pedestal and ran her finger
across it. Flashes of images sprang before her.

She took a moment to collect her thoughts.
Two people, one male one female. The female was obviously in
charge. He had called her ‘Jezebel’. That name sounded familiar.
She looked vaguely familiar too.

It dawned on her. It was Karl’s daughter,
Jezebel. The one who had proclaimed herself First Advisor to the
throne and was then sent to Treymayne as an emissary. She had
caused them no small amount of difficulties from the moment someone
had stopped her cull order. Ranis would like to get her hands on
that particular person. And the woman was now apparently collecting
ancient texts. Was it for the King? It would make a certain amount
of sense, especially as they suspected that it was he who gave the
order…

Ranis concentrated on the aura of the ones
who were here and transported again. She was outside of an inn, not
far away from the ruin and she scoffed at their lack of care in
covering their tracks. She pulled the hood of her cloak around her
face and entered.

The smell of ale and cooked meat assaulted
her nostrils and she quickly found an empty table. Facing herself
outward so she could scan the room, she ordered a glass of cider
from the girl who immediately came over to her. She scanned the
room and soon spotted the two who had robbed the ruin earlier. She
focused on their conversation and the rest of the din seemed to
fade away.

“Never mind him,” Jezebel said, the
irritation in her voice nearly palatable.

“Okay,” the man drew out the word, “but you
still haven’t told me why you want to collect them.”

“Isn’t it obvious, Devon?” scoffed Jezebel,
“Their knowledge will propel me into the status that I rightly
deserve and will allow me to seek vengeance on the two miscreants
as well as the bastard King. Once I have that, I will have
everything.” She repeated it again more slowly, “They will give me
everything that I have ever wanted.”

Ranis noticed the look that the man - Devon -
had upon his face and wondered how many times he had heard that
phrase in different forms: If only she had more money she’d be
happy, when she was on the council everything would be better, and
now wreck my vengeance and my rage will be sated. Ranis wondered if
anything would ever be enough for the woman.