Leoht (BloodRunes: Book 3) (8 page)

There was another emotion on his face as
well: That of disappointment that he himself was not included in
the woman’s desires, but it was lost upon Jezebel and she
continued, “You have no idea how much the betrayal of Gryffon and
his whore-who-was-supposed-to-be-my-maid hurt, and I simply cannot
accept that our King - the man who is supposed to represent the
very zenith of our society - is a fraud.” She paused a moment
before continuing with a very slow sentence consisting of, “I. Will
not. Stand by. And let it happen.”

Ranis could almost admire her tenacity if it
wasn’t that of a madwoman. The two people she was referring to were
of course the spy, Lord Gryffon, and her former maid, Layna. The
fact that she had not seen that the man did not ever hold any sort
of affection towards her and that her spreading around the rumor
that he was there to court her instead of the actual - or as actual
as you can be in a fictional world of spies - fact that he was
there because of finances and not her, was just stupid on her
part.

But she was continuing, “The knowledge that I
will gain from these is immeasurable!” She seemed to be getting
worked up. “Just think what I can accomplish with them.” Ranis once
again was the only one who noticed the man’s displeasure at the use
of the word ‘I’ instead of ‘we’. This could perhaps be used to her
advantage if the need arose.

Ranis watched until the two retired to their
individual suites, and bunkered down to observe them further. As
she sat in the darkness, she wondered if it was the best use of her
time to be bothering with the vindictive woman and her lackey, but
seeing as how they had no leads as yet as to the real identity of
the young woman who had been raised as Gerald and Evelyn’s own she
resigned herself to the boring night.

Around midnight, however, she got a mind-call
from another associate which suddenly changed her whole opinion of
the situation. After speaking with him, her position was suddenly
that much more attractive.

The woman and her lackey could potentially
come in useful after all.

CHAPTER 4

Layna and Gryffon parted ways with Katya and
headed towards Endlyfta. Gryffon’s haste in arriving left Layna
wondering if it had more to do with the Lady Aria’s predicament
than that of the country’s. While Katya’s description of the events
leading to Layna’s coma were harshly critical of the lady, Gryffon
defended her, saying that she had been fooled into giving Layna the
poison thinking that it was only a truth serum. Layna felt rather
betrayed that Aria could think such a horrible thing of her at all,
and hurt that she would be open to being convinced to use even a
truth serum.

Gryffon had always been there for her, even
when she thought he might turn her in because of her talent, but
now it seemed that he was growing forever more distant. She could
tell that the Three in her head were a source of great discomfort
to him, and she didn’t know how to explain to him the incredible
bond that it was, but that it didn’t diminish her feelings for him
in the least. She was extremely gratified and happy that he had
seen fit to risk himself to bring her to the source as the Oracle
said to save her, but saddened at the rift that her new friends had
caused.

When they arrived in Endlyfta, Gryffon made
immediately for the council hall and requested that he be able to
speak to them as soon as possible. They were not in session and had
to be gathered for the meeting, so they had a few hours to kill
before they could relate the important information that Katya had
given to them.

They wandered to the stables where if Aileen
and Charles had kept to the schedule they’d been keeping before
Layna’s near-death experience, they would be gathered to visit with
Echo. Sure enough, the three of them were huddled around under an
apple tree.

Charles took a huge bite of the apple he was
working on and exclaimed around the chunk, spewing half-chewed
fruit in all directions, “Ho there! Layna! You’re alright!”

Layna smiled at his sincere pleasure at her
recovery. “Yes, thanks to Gryffon and Katya. But I think they got a
little more than they bargained for.”

“Oh?” commented Aileen and Echo’s ears perked
up. Charles just continued to munch on his apple, though he did
give her a small hug as she came close. She warmed at the
gesture.

“Indeed. The source of the river actually
holds the essences of the Three and it was them who helped to cure
me.”

“Really,” said Aileen excitedly, “you found
the Kiani Stones?”

“Not only that,” Gryffon interjected before
Layna could answer, “but they talk to her in her head now.” Layna
wasn’t entirely pleased with the tone of voice he used to convey
this, and her heart constricted painfully in her chest.

“What?” Aileen’s voice squeaked out and Layna
looked at her curiously. The cool calm exterior of the woman that
Layna had never seen rattled in the least was having her voice
crack over the thought of Layna having the Three in her head? Maybe
Gryffon’s reaction wasn’t so strange after all. Layna sighed.

“Maybe it would be better if we didn’t go
around telling people that…” Aileen had backed up a pace and had a
look of a frightened deer in her eyes. “Are you okay?” Layna asked,
“I swear, it’s still me, it’s not like they’ve taken me over or
anything.”

Aileen bit her lip and the calm mask came
once more into place, “Of course you are, dear, I’m sorry. My
reaction isn’t towards you…” she paused, “I was just surprised is
all. The Kiani Stones haven’t actually made contact with people for
hundreds of years. The fact that they would now is disturbing.”

Layna relaxed. “I know, apparently they made
a mistake by using our world as a prison for a rouge dragon, only
he wasn’t properly contained and they feel responsible for a lot of
the evil that has gone on here since they left. I guess your
predictions of how bad this situation was weren’t that far off
after all. The Sleeping God is that rogue dragon.”

Aileen lapsed into thought and Charles cut
in, “What the blazes are you talkin’ ‘bout?”

Layna quickly filled them in on the
information the Three had provided her. “I don’t think that we’re
really supposed to be going around telling everyone this
though…”

-
Your trust in us is well-placed,
Host-of-Elders.
-

“Um, thanks,” Layna replied.

Aileen had remained silent during the
telling, but now she looked up at her. “What are they planning on
doing with him?”

Kai’s mental presence appeared in the back of
Layna’s mind and though he wasn’t actually speaking to her, the
closeness of his aura allowed her to ‘feel’ what he was thinking.
There was something about this woman. Couldn’t quite put his
proverbial finger on it…

“They want us to find the place where they
imprisoned the body and we’re supposed to find out more about this
sword and where the Bloodstone might be now.” She held up Leoht for
them to see and Charles took it to examine it as she continued.
“They feel that after all the havoc that has been wrecked by the
Bloodstone’s presence in the world, it will only stop if it is
destroyed and the source is removed. They haven’t exactly been
clear with me about what they mean by that, but I know that we
first need to find where the prison is.”

Aileen’s face seemed to pale a bit.

“Any idea ‘o where to start?” Charles asked,
tossing the core of his apple into the field and putting the tip of
the sword into the earth and leaning against it. Layna’s eyes
bulged a bit at his treatment of it, but she said nothing.

“They told us it was in the midst of the wild
magic to the north,” Gryffon said, “So Katya has set out across the
Ferryn Plains, and Layna and I are supposed to be doing research to
try and find a more exact location to give her. I’m not sure why
they
couldn’t just give it to us…”

Layna bristled, “They don’t really know our
world very well anymore, they’ve been gone from here a long time.
We weren’t supposed to need them anymore. When they come back as
they were planning to collect him, they’d be able to ‘feel’ him.”
Aileen’s gaze was drawn upwards, and Layna’s followed, noticing the
clouds descending on their sunny day before dismissing them.

“You sent that poor girl ‘cross the Plains by
her wee self!” Charles gasped in his usual melodramatic manner,
“She’ll be killed!”

Layna smiled, “Something tells me she can
take care of herself.”

“We needed to come back and tell the council
information that Katya had about the army that’s set to invade, but
we also needed to get to the source as quickly as possible.
Splitting up seemed like the best thing to do.”

-
How are you going to reach her with
information? Or join her when she finds it?-
Echo asked.

“The Three showed us how to makes stones that
will allow us to communicate over long distances and will help hone
in the transportation spell to get us there.”

“You’re planning on transporting into the
chaos of the Ferryn Plains?” Aileen asked incredulously. Layna felt
another strange twinge from her guests.

Gryffon answered, “They assured us that it
would be safe once Katya had prepared an area for us.” He paused
and added, “Hopefully they’re right.”

“Why do they want you investigating the
sword?” Aileen asked almost nervously, once again giving Layna the
impression that she was distressed about something.

“They said that they think its properties
will help to contain the Bloodstone’s power while enhancing ours,
and they seem to think that something,” she paused, looking for the
right word “special had a hand in creating it. So, the more we know
about its history, the better we can hope to use it this time to
finally rid ourselves of Nuko’s foul curse once and for all.” After
a moment of silence, she spoke again. “Any ideas where we should
start trying to find out where an ancient prison that’s holding the
body of a dragon is? Or about a sword made and wielded by a
mysterious man who came and went from history in a day? Or better
yet, where the Bloodstone disappeared to?” Layna asked
sardonically.

“I think so,” Aileen said softly.

*

Katya wasn’t all happy about leaving Gryffon
and Layna for reasons she couldn’t completely rationalize to
herself. But she also didn’t want to stay and answer any more
questions about Layna’s parents’ deaths. She had already had to
tell her more than she wanted to share about the incident and a
fair amount of her past before she had been able to actually break
away and leave their little group. Part of her longed for the
companionship that she felt with the two of them, but another part
screamed at her that she was better off on her own, with only
herself to look after. It was safer for her, and perhaps to
everyone close to her, if she relied only on herself. Marak
squeezed her arm and she smiled, amending, and on her truest
friend.

They had agreed that the most likely route
was straight across the Ferryn Plains. Though no one had gone
across them to offer them a map of the region, Gelendan and
Treymayne were each surrounded by water on two sides - though both
had areas of uninhabited regions around them. The other two borders
were: The one which was shared with each other and that with the
Ferryn Plains, either past the North Woods as was the case in
Gelendan, or over the mountains in Treymayne. So, Katya set off
across the Ferryn Plains. The very place that many had tried to
cross with no success.

Her first stop, before making her way across
the desert of the unknown, was to a town that Gryffon had
recommended that she stop in on her way. When she arrived in town,
it was abuzz with news and there was no chance that the gossip
would be likely to turn from the latest information from Gelendan.
Katya didn’t really care what was happening there, being much more
interested in what the townspeople this close to the plains might
know about the region, but none seemed able to talk about their
northern border with such an interesting topic at hand regarding
their western neighbor. So, Katya obliged them, hoping that she
could then turn the conversation the way that she wanted it once
they had gotten it out of their systems.

However, the gossip that the Treymaynian
people were spreading was anything but mundane. Word had just
reached the city that the King had transformed into a dragon, and
the tale had become even more exaggerated in the length of time it
had taken to reach here.

According to their reports, the dragon was
ten times bigger than Katya had witnessed and, as if that size
wasn’t bad enough, had three heads, and was apparently thought to
be currently leading an army towards Treymayne.

Katya was unimpressed with the wild tales
about the physical properties of the dragon, but the information
about its origin left her dumbfounded, a state which took her quite
by surprise. No wonder the dragon had seemed so familiar, it was
the King who she had freed from his bonds in the forest. Could that
be the reason that they had been spared? Because he had recognized
her? Her life was getting stranger and stranger since escaping from
Karl’s vile grasp.

The revelation complicated her thoughts. If
the King had turned himself into a dragon, there was a fair chance
that it was because he was in contact with the Bloodstone, and if
that was the case…she was on a mission against him. Bad enough that
she had warned Treymayne of his army. She shook her head, of course
she had warned them, the army of slaves was unjust and evil, and
would undoubtedly cause mass amounts of bloodshed. And as much as
Katya liked to separate herself from the world, knowing she had
knowledge that could prevent many innocent deaths obligated her to
use it. She shouldn’t be feeling guilty for stopping a man who
would use such means for his own personal gain. He was as bad as
Karl.