Sovereign of the Seven Isles 7: Reishi Adept (12 page)

Chapter
9

“You’re making me nervous,” Wren said.

“I’m sorry,” Isabel muttered, continuing to pace restlessly across the room.

Phane had taken Lacy three days ago. With each passing hour, Isabel’s dread had grown until it felt like she was overflowing with it.

“He said he wouldn’t kill her,” Wren said.

“That was before she stabbed him.”

Phane had been absent since that encounter
, and security around her lavish prison cell had been significantly increased. The women guarding her had been replaced by men, a development that probably meant the threat of the Sin’Rath was far removed. Isabel could only imagine the damage they were doing wherever they’d gone.

Of more interest was the fear in her new guards. They were more wary, skittish even, but not just of her. From her balcony, she could see men stationed in pairs all around her estate grounds. Their added vigilance had Isabel wondering about the nat
ure of the threat they feared, and more importantly, weather she could make use of it. When she asked the guards, they ignored her. In fact, they studiously avoided conversation with her at every turn.

Dierdra was similarly tight-lipped, yet Isabel could see a greater fear in her as well—a fear that seemed to
subside only moments after she arrived with their meals, as if she saw Isabel’s chambers as a safe harbor.

“Maybe he’s just keeping her somewhere else so she can’t work with us against him,” Wren said.

“He took her into his tower, and Slyder hasn’t seen her come out.”

The door opened and Dierdra ente
red with their dinner. A soldier just outside closed the door behind her. She stopped, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, before placing the tray on the table and setting out their silverware. Knives were absent from the place settings, and the meat, slow-roasted beef, was cut into bite-sized pieces.

At least they’d made him bleed, Isabel thought to herself.

“What are you so afraid of, Dierdra?” Wren asked, seating herself at the table. “We won’t hurt you.”

Dierdra glanced at Isabel
, then shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Maybe I should go have a look for myself,” Isabel said.

“You know you’re not allowed to leave the estate,” Dierdra said.

“They won’t notice … if I look like you,” Isabel said, pointedly leaning forward and holding Dierdra’s eyes.

“Please don’t. Prince Phane was very angry the last time you took my likeness.”

“Then tell us what has everyone so scared,” Isabel said.

Dierdra swallowed involuntarily, looking this way and that, as if she thought they were being watched. When she leaned over Isabel’s shoulder to put her plate on the table, she whispered, “The shade.”

Isabel nodded to herself, stifling a smile. If Rankosi was thinning the ranks of Phane’s soldiers, that served her. And if Phane decided to banish him to the neth
erworld, that served her too.

She
stabbed a piece of meat, but a horn sounded just below her balcony before she could bring it to her mouth. Dierdra went white. Isabel looked to Wren with an unspoken command: Be ready.

A flash of light lit up the sky, like a single ray of sunlight stabbing down through the gloaming of late evening. Isabel knew exactly what had caused it in an instant. The roar of a wyvern answered the alarm horn.

Isabel pushed away from the table and faced Dierdra. “Sit down and say nothing. If you interfere with me in any way, I will kill you.”

Dierdra went white and sat down, nodding tightly.

Isabel raced to the balcony and smiled when she saw two Sky Knights overhead. A muffled thump outside her door drew her attention. Before she could take three steps into her chambers, the door opened. Wyatt and Ayela slipped inside.

“Lady Reishi, it’s good to see you well,” Wyatt said. “Lord Reishi commanded that we bring you this.”

He held up a gold ring, set with a dark gemstone. Isabel smiled in triumph, snatching the ring from him and putting it on.

She hurried to Wren and said,
“Hold still.” When she touched the ring to Wren’s collar, Isabel felt a tingle of magic dance over her followed by a knowing: She was master of that slave collar now. With a thought, it popped open and she took it off Wren’s neck.

“Hurry,” Ayela whispered harshly. “I hear boots.”

A man shouted an alarm out in the hallway.

“What’s your exit?” Isabel asked Wyatt.

“Kiera will land on your balcony at the signal.”

Isabel handed Wyatt the collar. “Deliver this to Mage Gamaliel at your first opportunity.”

He nodded, slipping the slave collar into his tunic.

The door opened.
Ayela blew a handful of dust into the two soldiers’ faces. They stumbled forward, falling over a step later. More were coming, and fast.

“Signal Kiera,” Isabel said. “I’ll hold the door.”

Ayela nodded, racing across the room to the balcony.

Wyatt stepped up beside Isabel as she cast her shield spell. The first man through the door took an arrow through the throat. The man behind him was blown back by Isabel’s force
-push, crashing into the two men behind him.

A flare lit up the room from behind them,
followed only moments later by a gust of wind as Kiera’s wyvern slowed its descent and landed on the balcony railing.

“Quickly!” she shouted.

“Take Wren and go,” Isabel said.

“What about you?” Wyatt asked, loosing another arrow at the doorway
, killing a man who peeked around the corner.

“I’m not ready to leave yet. Besides, Lacy may still be alive and I won’t go without her.”

Wyatt hesitated, looking at her pleadingly.

“Take Wren to safety and you’ll help me more than you know.”

In the space of a blink, he made his decision, turning and scooping up Wren like a doll, carrying her to the waiting wyvern and helping her into the saddle behind Ayela and Kiera.

Isabel sent a light-lance through the wall
two feet beside the door. A man in the hall fell. She raced to the balcony as Wyatt was mounting up.

“Have your people prepare to assault this fortress,” Isabel said to Ayela. “Phane’s plans all revolve around the Nether Gate. As soon as he leaves, this place will be vulnerable.”

“Understood. Take care of yourself, Isabel.”

She nodded with a smile
. Then she looked at Kiera and said, “Take Wren to the fortress island. Tell Cassandra to prepare her for the mana fast if she wants it.”

“By your command,
Lady Reishi,” Kiera said.

“I love you, Wren,” Isabel said.

“I love you too,” Wren said, wiping a tear from her cheek.

“Go,” Isabel said, turning back toward the door, expecting to see soldiers streaming into her room, but seeing only Dierdra, sitting with her face in her hands as if closing her eyes would shut out all of the evils of the world.

A whoosh of air swept past Isabel as the wyvern leapt into the night sky. She removed the slave master’s ring and quickly buried it deep in the soil of a potted plant on her balcony. Then she went back to her table and sat down. She was chewing a piece of meat when a dozen soldiers filed in, shields raised and swords drawn. She ignored them, taking a bite of potatoes and washing it down with a sip of wine.

“Where are they?” the sergeant demanded.

“They flew away,” Isabel said. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m eating.”

The soldiers fanned out around the room, all still at the ready, though none of them seemed to know how to react to her.

She was halfway through her meal when she felt a collar snap into place around her neck. A wraithkin smiled at her when she turned to see who was behind her. She nodded to herself, taking another bite of beef just as Phane strode into the room.

“Explain yourself,” he demanded.

She cocked her head, frowning a bit before smiling. “I serve the light and I’ve come here to kill you.”

He lifted her from her chair with his magic and drew her through the air until she was floating a few feet before him.

“Don’t trifle with me, Isabel. I can make your time here even more unpleasant.”

“Everything about being near you is unpleasant.”

“Where is the child?” he asked, as if noticing Wren’s absence for the first time.

“Like I told your men, she flew away.”

His golden eyes glittered with anger. “Explain.”

Isabel shrugged. “My friends came here and rescued her.”

“They rescued her, and left you, Lady Reishi, here in my grasp.”

“Yes,” Isabel said.

“Why?”

“I told you, I came here to kill you, and you’re not dead yet.”

Phane touched his slave master’s ring, shaking his head with mock sadness. “Your little friend is dying right now.”

“If you say so.
”

He scowled, dropping her without notice. She stumbled but caught her balance before falling.

“You have a slave-master’s ring,” he said, shaking his head slowly. “You’re really beginning to try my patience. Give me the ring.” He held out his hand.

“I didn’t keep it,” Isabel said. “What would be the point? I knew you’d
just figure it out and take it.”

He cast a spell with a few words
, looking Isabel up and down intently.

“Well, now that you have a coll
ar of your own, I bet you wish you’d kept the ring. Not that it would do you any good. In light of recent events, these comfortable quarters are no longer in order.”

“What, you’re not going to beat me again?”

“Would it do any good?”

“Probably not,” Isabel said with a shrug.

“Come with me,” he said, turning on his heel. The soldiers fell in line behind them.

“Much has transpired since last we met,” he said, an edge of anger in his voice.

“What’s the matter? Did you just get word of Alexander’s escape?”

He
stopped, facing her with a flash of fury in his eyes before regaining control and forcing a smile.

“A temporary setback,” he said, leading her out of the estate and onto the street.
“In the end, your beloved will fall. One way or another, I will rule the Seven Isles. The only question that remains is which path I will have to walk to reach my rightful place.

“Your temporary defeat of Azugorath was impressive, as was your rather unsettling spell.” He stopped again, this time with an expression of genuine concern tinged by a hint of confusion.

“I was expecting a simple light-lance … nothing I couldn’t defend against. What you hit me with was altogether beyond my experience, and not just magically speaking. I felt things that I’ve never felt before. For a few moments I actually felt bad about some of my past victories. Your spell turned triumphs over bitter rivals into something other than they should be.

“For those brief moments I believe I felt shame, remorse
, and even guilt. Until then those things were just empty words to me. Thankfully, the experience passed quickly.” He hesitated, frowning deeply as if trying to comprehend a facet of human nature he’d never given thought to before.

“Tell me, Isabel, is that how you experience life? Do those feelings haunt you?”

She laughed, not to mock him but because she couldn’t help it. When he looked on the verge of action, she stifled her humor and shook her head.

“No, Phane, those feelings don’t haunt me. I don’t hurt people who don’t deserv
e it. It’s a simple thing, really. If you do right by other people, you don’t feel remorse or guilt or shame.”

He regarded her seriously for several moments. “For the first
couple of days after you tried to kill me, I was very angry with you. Not because you made it possible for Lacy to stab me, I was rather impressed by that, but for the feelings you made me have. They were disturbing. But now that I’ve had time to reflect on the experience, I realize that you’ve given me a gift.”

“What are you talking about?” Isabel asked, hair standing up on the back of her neck.

“You asked me once when I realized that I was different. I was six. I had a dog. Helpless little thing, wouldn’t stop whining. It peed on my bed … so I killed it. My mother came into my room not a moment later. She was distraught at the sight of the dead mutt. I didn’t understand why. She said: Don’t you have a conscience? Then she left the room, crying.

“I’ve often wondered at her reaction. And until now, I never fully
understood it. Conscience has always been just a word to me. But for a few moments, while I was under the influence of your spell, I believe I actually experienced it. I didn’t like it, but that’s beside the point.

“I see now, more clearly than ever before, why most people are so beneath me. To be constrained by such feelings, to be haunted by such unpleasant sen
sations, it must be paralyzing.”