Authors: Anne Bishop
«While Mrs. Beale is in there?» Rainier asked. «That’s vicious.»
«I know.»
“And who might you be?” Rainier asked, looking at the man.
“The resident caretaker,” the man replied. “And a resident ghost.”
“Ghost?” Surreal asked.
The man nodded. “One of them who was enslaved to serve the ruler of the house.”
“The Blood—” She bit back the words. This was Jaenelle and Marian’s performance. If they wanted landen children to think the Blood kept enslaved ghosts as servants…
Maybe this version of the Blood was going to be harder to swallow than she’d imagined.
«A ghost is one of the demon-dead whose power has faded to the point where there is still a shape without substance,» Rainier said. «What possible use would one be as a servant?»
«Apparently they can light lamps,» Surreal replied. «Although you would think they could just stand out of the way and glow.»
«I don’t think they can do that. And even if they could,
he
isn’t glowing.»
She wasn’t even inside yet and the place was already scraping on her nerves and temper. The sooner they fulfilled their obligation and could leave, the better she’d like it. “Has anyone else arrived?” she asked the caretaker.
“No, Lady,” he replied. “You and the gentleman are the first.”
“What time is it?” she asked Rainier.
He called in a watch, opened the cover, and held it in the light for her to read.
Somewhere in the house, a gong sounded.
“What’s that?” Surreal asked.
The caretaker shrugged. “Nothing that concerns the likes of me.”
Rainier closed the watch and vanished it.
The gong sounded again.
Some kind of clock? Frowning, Surreal stared at the street. Where in the name of Hell were Lucivar and Daemon?
“Well, shall we go in?” Surreal asked Rainier.
“Oh, best to wait for the whole party,” the caretaker replied.
“Won’t be as much fun if there’s just the two of you.”
Since she wasn’t expecting to have fun, that wasn’t an incentive to wait.
“How many were you expecting?” Rainier asked.
“Only twelve people per tour,” the caretaker said.
“Twelve people were invited?” Surreal asked.
The caretaker shrugged. “Was told only twelve to a tour.”
They stood outside, waiting. To give herself something to do, Surreal pictured a straw dummy of Falonar—and thought she deserved a lot of credit for picturing a straw dummy. Then she pictured herself throwing lovely, shiny knives at the target.
The third time she got to one hundred, she huffed out a sigh.
Rainier must have taken that as his cue to do something.
“What about them?” Rainier asked, tipping his head to indicate the children.
«No,» Surreal said. «I don’t want to be responsible for them. I’m not a Sceltie who enjoys herding idiot sheep.»
«Tomorrow they could come here on their own, so by letting them come with us tonight, we’re nothing more than token escorts,» Rainier replied. When she hesitated, he added, «Do you want to be done with this family obligation or not?»
Put
that
way…«Yeah. All right. Fine.»
“How about if seven of them come on the tour with us?” Rainier asked the caretaker. “That would make nine in the house and enough places left open so the others can join us when they arrive.”
The caretaker shrugged.
«I guess ghosts are as good with providing information as you are with adding,» Surreal told Rainier. «When Sadi and Yaslana arrive, that will make eleven, not twelve.»
«I was assuming the High Lord was also invited.»
«Mother Night, I hope not.»
A flash of amusement along the psychic thread, but Rainier kept a straight face as he turned toward the children. “All right, then. The seven oldest of you may come with us.”
The next few minutes were filled with arguing, bartering, and negotiating.
Rainier said, «I thought this would be the simplest way, since the younger ones will be able to come on another night.»
Surreal studied the group of children as if she were at an aristo party. «Nothing is going to be simple. You’ve got a dominant cock and a bitch who’s the dominant female among this group. But not all the children here follow those two, so cock and bitch are trying to ignore your age requirement in favor of having their followers tour the house with them.»
Rainier didn’t respond to her assessment directly, but his sharp whistle got the children’s attention. Within moments, Rainier had eliminated the younger children, selected the six oldest—three boys and three girls—and was about to toss a coin to decide between the two remaining children when Surreal gave him a psychic tap on the shoulder.
«One more,» she said, looking at the boy lingering on the other side of the fence. Not like the others. This one was an outsider who might be included when another body was needed for a game, but he wasn’t someone any of the others would include for any kind of treat.
“What about it, boy?” Rainier said, holding up a copper. “We could do a second coin toss for the last spot.”
A hesitation. Then the boy looked at the other children and backed away, shaking his head.
The crest side of the copper won the toss, and the fourth boy joined the others.
“This way now,” the caretaker said, opening the door but carefully staying outside.
An odd sensation as she passed through the doorway, as if the threshold required more than one step. Maybe it was all the illusion spells that had to be woven throughout this place. Would Blood who wore lighter Jewels be more or less affected? She’d have to ask Marian, since the hearth witch was the only one in the family who wore lighter Jewels.
“Sitting room is that doorway to the right,” the caretaker said.
Since the children were crowding in behind her, she moved farther into the hall—and caught a whiff of something unpleasant.
“Just wait in the sitting room,” the caretaker said, still standing outside.
The last one of their group to enter the house, Rainier was now the first to enter the sitting room.
As she waited for the children to follow Rainier, she caught another whiff of…something…and looked around. Seemed to be coming from the area around the stairs, but it was there and gone before she could pinpoint the source, and there was nothing else in that part of the hall except a mirror on the wall opposite the stairs. The only other thing in the hall was a coat-tree, and the smell wasn’t coming from that.
Sighing, she went into the sitting room. An hour from now she would have completed her duty to family, Rainier would have completed his duty to Queen, and they could go back to a clean dining house in Amdarh and have a late meal while they figured out how to avoid saying anything about this damn place.
They weren’t coming.
The bastards weren’t coming!
How could either of them have ignored that summons? He’d been so careful with the wording to make sure they couldn’t wiggle out of attending the evening’s activities.
There had been some risk in sending the invitations so late, but he’d had to balance the delay against the risk of them talking to each other or, worse, talking to the
Ladies.
Still, he’d given them enough time—
if
they were as devoted to their wives as they professed.
Bastards. He recognized the male who had come with
Lady
Surreal as the man who had been with her in the bookshop that day in Amdarh, but he didn’t know who he was. Probably no one important. Probably just the stud Surreal was currently riding. He’d been in the wrong position to see the Jewel in the male’s ring, so there was no way for him to tell what kind of power had just walked into the house.
No matter. He’d prepared this entertainment for the SaDiablo family. No other male could compare with
those
two, so the bitch’s escort posed no threat to his plans.
At least the male had been obliging enough to invite some of the children. It was necessary for a few of them to be involved in this entertainment, and as the kindly caretaker, he would have let some of them go in with the Blood. But now the Blood would feel responsible for the children’s welfare, since
they
had extended the invitation.
Assuming, of course, that the Blood ever felt responsible for anything they did.
No matter. The children were in the house by the Blood’s invitation, and that should work out better than he’d anticipated.
He looked at the street, his eyes passing over the boy still standing on the other side of the gate, and hoped to see one of
them
appear. Once he closed the door, all the spells would be in motion—and would stay in motion while any of the guests lived.
Sadi and Yaslana weren’t coming. So be it.
Let the game begin.
The outside of the house had peeling paint and some shutters that looked like they were holding on by a single nail. The sitting room was a good match for the exterior—peeling wallpaper that was thankfully so faded it barely had color, lace curtains that looked like they would shred as soon as any attempt was made to clean them, and overstuffed furniture that, judging by the chew holes, housed several generations of mice.
“It’s awful,” the oldest boy said, sounding thrilled.
“The Blood don’t live in places like this,” Rainier said, sounding less than thrilled.
“I have,” Surreal said as she wandered around the room. A wave of annoyance coming from Rainier washed over her, but she continued to study the room. Wasn’t there supposed to be something spooky? Although she’d bet just looking at this place had given Marian shudders.
“Lady Surreal, neither of us live in a place like this.”
More than annoyance. Rainier was pissed that anyone, even landen children, would think the Blood would consider this place homey.
“Not now,” Surreal said, focusing on a portrait over the fireplace. Was there something queer about the man’s eyes? “But when I was preparing for a kill and didn’t want anyone to know I was in that part of a Territory, I would stay in an abandoned place like this for a few days.”
Sometimes she preferred secrecy to staying at a Red Moon house and providing services as a whore, which had been her other profession—until her recently acquired male relatives calmly told her that any male who got into her bed from now on had better be there for her pleasure or he would live just long enough to regret using his cock. So that ended
that
career. All right, she’d already walked away from that part of her life even before she came to Kaeleer, but it was still annoying to be
told
she was retired.
Becoming aware of the silence, she turned away from the portrait and found seven children staring at her.
“You kill people?” the youngest girl asked.
“I was an assassin,” Surreal replied cheerfully. “And a damn good one. I know all kinds of death spells.”
«That might have been a little more than they needed to know,» Rainier said.
Since they were looking at her the way a rabbit looks at a wolf, Rainier was probably right. On the other hand, they would probably want to stay away from her and would attach themselves to him during the tour, and that was all right too.
Then she looked at Rainier. His expression strongly suggested that she soften her statement.
“But I’m retired now,” Surreal said. “I don’t kill people anymore.”
At least, not for money.
“I’m Lady Surreal, and this is Prince Rainier.”
“Those are funny names,” the oldest boy said.
“Really?” Rainier sounded like he was gritting his teeth hard enough to break a few.
«You were the one who invited them to join us,» Surreal said, earning a searing look from Rainier before she focused on the children. “So who are you?”
The oldest boy, the one she’d labeled the dominant cock, was Kester. His friend was Trist. The other boys were Haywood, who was called Henn for reasons she didn’t understand, and Trout, whose face reddened when the other boys sneered at him, but who gave her a polite bow nonetheless.
The bitch was named Ginger. Her pal, the aspiring bitch, was Dayle. The youngest girl was Sage.
«Is it common for landens to name their children after foods and spices?» Surreal asked Rainier.
«I don’t know. Maybe their mothers were hungry when they had to choose a name. Or they could be lying about their names because they think it’s amusing.»
A door slammed. The house shuddered.
“I’ll check,” Surreal said, crossing the room, her hand curled in just the right way if she needed to call in her stiletto. But when she reached the sitting room doorway, there was only the caretaker in the hallway, turning away from the closed front door.
“So discourteous,” he muttered as he walked past her. “So
disobedient.
Not what I expected.”
“When does this tour begin?” Surreal asked him.
He didn’t stop, didn’t turn. “Find the first clue, and you’ll know what to do,” he snapped. He slammed through a door at the end of the hallway.
She was trying to be tolerant of this place because it was Jaenelle and Marian’s idea, but she was going to talk to them about that little bastard. Performance or not, if he tried that pissing contest with the wrong Blood male, he would end up very very dead.
And speaking of Blood males…
She headed for the front door.
“Anything?” Rainier asked as he stepped into the sitting room doorway.
“I’m going to check for late arrivals,” Surreal said. “You look for the first clue. It must be in the sitting room, since we were directed there by that little piece of walking carrion.”
“Surreal.” Rainier tipped his head to indicate the children.
She turned and gave him a look that had him backing up a step. Then she yanked the front door open—and stared at the brick wall in front of her. She reached out cautiously, sure her hand would pass through the illusion—or trigger something “spooky.” But it was solid brick against her palm.
“Hell’s fire,” she muttered. “Guess we don’t leave through the same door we entered.” And now that the door was closed, that smell in the hallway was getting stronger—and more familiar.