The Blood Witch (The Blood Reign Chronicles Book 1) (44 page)

Several days later found Allysix sitting in her room at the Lady of the Sea Inn enjoying a glass of wine. This wine was particularly delightful and she wondered where Kavarina had been able to acquire such a fine wine. She would have to ask the woman when she saw her next. Abruptly a knock came at her door.

“Enter,” Allysix said curtly, annoyed at being disturbed at this hour.

Baalnar entered the room and strode across the floor. “Great Mistress,” he said bowing deeply, “I’m terribly sorry to disturb you, but I have news I think you will want to hear.

Yes, this was much better behavior from the man, as opposed to his former arrogant demeanor towards her
. Allysix liked the new Baalnar even more than she had the old one.

“What is it?” Allysix asked, curious as to what was so important for him to disturb her evening.

“Two days ago we picked up a prisoner. The man had been wandering through the city asking about you………by name. Needless to say, it upset some of the people greatly, so I arrested him and placed him in a cell for questioning. I took the responsibility of questioned him personally, considering the delicate nature of the situation.

For the entire first day of interrogation the man denied all of it, saying he had not been asking about you at all. Finally, after some…….
persuasions
, the prisoner admitted that he had been sent to find you and give you an important message.

At the time, I was alone in the cell with him so I told him that I knew how to find you. I figured that if he wasn’t what he said he was then I could dispose of him easily enough without too much trouble or suspicion.

I hope I did not overstep myself in this,” Baalnar said bowing his head diffidently.

“Not at all Baalnar, not at all, you did very well. You showed great initiative and good judgment. Well done.” Baalnar beamed proudly at the praise from Allysix.

“This man of course did not believe me at first, with me being the captain of the watch and all. But after more
persuasion,
he finally came out with his story. He said he is a messenger sent by a gnome named Mortikus.”

Allysix knew no one named Mortikus, and when she showed no signs of recognition from the name Baalnar continued, “The man claims that Mortikus deals in flesh trade………literally. The gnome captures unsuspecting travelers and sells them to the Vashi in the Mountains of Kaal…. as food………for the Vashi to….eat,” he said with a twisted mouth, almost as if he were going to spit.

Allysix laughed out loud. “What an enterprising man this Mortikus, I would like to meet him sometime.”

“Well it seems a group of travelers that the gnome captured was special in some way. When he arrived at the Vashi trading camp, the Vashi told Mortikus that
you
had informed their leader that you wanted this particular young man that he had captured,” Baalnar said with a puzzled look. Clearly, he was expecting an explanation of how the Vashi knew that Allysix wanted this young man and why he was so important. But Allysix was in no mood to explain it to Baalnar.

So that’s where the boy Jak had been.
Some time ago, Allysix had felt the boy moving west, away from Yilavo City. She had been puzzled by it wondering if the boy was that foolish or if he had just decided to run away from her. But after staying in one spot for a few days somewhere in the Mountains of Kaal, Allysix felt him moving east, in the direction of Yilavo City towards her. Presently, the boy Jak was only a few days west of the city. If he was indeed captured, then perhaps the Vashi or this Mortikus was bringing him to her. After all, it was a fair distance to the Mountains of Kaal, and she supposed they might be bringing the boy at least part of the way to speed things up, possibly to gain favor and rewards.

“Do you still have this messenger in custody?” Allysix asked Baalnar.

“Yes Great Mistress. I thought you might want to talk with him personally, so I have the prisoner close by with two of our men guarding him. Would you like to question him? I will have him brought right away if it pleases you.”

“Yes, I would like to talk with him. Bring him to me now.”

Baalnar stepped to the door and spoke softly with someone waiting outside. After several moments, there was another knock on the door. Baalnar opened it and pulled the man roughly through and shoved him towards where Allysix was seated. The man was travel stained and haggard, but overall a rather plain looking fellow. His face was covered with many bruises and a few deep cuts. Allysix supposed it had been the
persuasions
of Baalnar that had given them to the man. Baalnar escorted him forward, and when they stopped a few paces in front of Allysix, the man remained upright so Baalnar roughly kicked the man’s legs out from beneath him and shoved him hard to the floor.

“You are in the presence of the Great Mistress, Allysix. You
will
show the proper respect.”

The man struggled hesitantly to his knees, with his head bowed low to the floor, “M-My apologies G-Gr-Great Mistress.”

“Who are you, and why are you here?” Allysix asked flatly. “I hope for your sake your answer pleases me.”

“I—I my name is Gamry. I work for the gnome Mortikus and I help him transport captives under his sleep spell to the Vashi in the mountains. He pays well.”

“Yes, Yes, I know all this already, but why are you here? Why are you going about the city asking for me by name?” She demanded impatiently.

“Well, he…Mortikus, had captured these four you see…an old man, a very big man, a young man, and a little girl. We were taking them to the Vashi to sell them.

But when we got there, the Vashi said that
you
wanted the young man. So Mortikus sent me to tell you we had him. I rode as fast as I could to get here, but I didn’t know where you were…..Great Mistress, or how to find you. The Vashi can’t bring the young man into the city, so they wanted me to ask you to send someone to get him.”

“You were able to transport the captives to the Vashi, why couldn’t you just bring them here yourselves.”

“Ummm…….when we took them they were asleep, under Mortikus’ sleep spell. Mortikus said he could not put them under the spell again so soon else they might die. There are only three of us, including the gnome. We couldn’t transport them ourselves without them being asleep. One of the captives is
very
big. We couldn’t risk it”

“Where are they now?” Allysix asked, already knowing the answer. She had an odd feeling of anticipation inside her. She found herself looking forward to seeing Jak again…….
Jak? She had never thought of him as Jak before. It was always the boy Jak, or just the boy. It must be the cursed girl Brigette’s thoughts oozing in again.
They had seemed to come to the surface more and more whenever she thought of Jak.

“Umm…..Ahh…..when I left they were in the Vashi caves in the mountains,” Gamry said uncertainly.

Allysix knew that Jak at least, was no longer in the mountains. She didn’t know whether the Vashi had gotten bold enough to bring the boy in themselves. Or perhaps they were trying to gain some favor by at least bringing him most of the way. Then again, Jak may have killed them all and broken free. The thought of Jak killing all of them made Allysix giggle inside.

“Baalnar, you will send five good men with Gamry to retrieve the boy,” Allysix commanded curtly.

“Pardon Great Mistress, boy?” Baalnar asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“That is what I said, is it not?” Allysix snapped angrily. She did not want to explain herself to Baalnar, and besides she still wanted to keep the boy’s……potential a secret.

“Yes, of course, my apologies Great Mistress, I will send the men right away.”

“And Baalnar, tell the men you send to be watchful. They should encounter the boy a few days outside of the city, if not sooner. He may be captive to the Vashi, or perhaps it may be that the old man, girl, and big man are with him. In either case, the men need to be careful. Do not harm the boy; I want him brought to me
unharmed
.” Not that Allysix thought these men could harm Jak now if he was turning. But she didn’t want to take any chances.

“The others that are with him are of no consequence, if they are even with him. The men can do what they wish with the others. Just bring me the boy.”

“A few days…Ahh Great Mistress?” Gamry said in confusion, “it’s more than ten days to the mountains, and that is only if we ride very hard.”

“I am well aware of how far the mountains are, but they are not in the mountain any longer. They are only a few days west of here. Just do as I say, and get out of my sight quickly before I loose my patience with you.” She hissed threateningly.

Gamry leapt to his feet and darted from the room without another word. Even Baalnar made haste to followed him out and shut the door.

Two days had passed with the boy Jak getting slowly, steadily closer to Yilavo City. Then for the past two days his speed had increased somewhat. He was obviously traveling faster now than he had been before. Had the men that she sent found Jak and were now bringing him back? He was very close now; in fact, he would be in the city later this very day. She didn’t want to make it too easy on Jak, so she decided it was time to block the link. After all, if her men had the boy they would bring him to her. If not, she didn’t want Jak able to sense her. The only downside was that she wouldn’t be able to sense Jak either, and the thought of that was a little troubling to her.

Kavarina and Larysian had provided Allysix with attendants, which was a very nice change. The attendants didn’t really know their jobs very well since they were not used to attending to royalty, but they could be taught. However, one of the first attendants Allysix had received was completely insufferable. The woman dawdled in her duties and never learned from her mistakes. She had angered Allysix to the point that she finally had to put the woman to better use.

Kavarina had not been happy about having to remove a dead body from her inn. The innkeeper said that her establishment was not the type of place that had this kind of thing happen. But Kavarina managed the situation in a very discrete and efficient manner.

Allysix was to meet with Magistrate Jaren tonight. It was finally time for her to take control of the city before things got any further out of control. She would eliminate Jaren, but she needed to make it look like an accident. The last thing she needed was to have anymore suspicions raised at the moment. The thought had occurred to her, to perhaps have Talvin take care of Jaren and make it look like a robbery attempt. But she dismissed that idea for the fact that it would cause too much attention on the City Watch for not doing their jobs. The watch was already losing some credibility because of the dead bodies that had been found in and around the city with no apparent motive or suspects.

Allysix finally settled on a poison that she obtained from Maggas. It was very potent and only a very small amount was needed to stop the heart. There would be no marks on the body, and it would appear as if the magistrate died naturally in his sleep.

According to Maggas, only a little of the poison was needed to do the job, but it worked slowly and would take several hours to take effect. This way she could slip some of the poison into Jaren’s wine during their meeting and after she was gone, Jaren would go to bed and simply not wake up again. Magistrate Jaren was not an old man, but he wasn’t that young anymore either. It shouldn’t be too far fetched that he died naturally without any suspicion of foul play.

Allysix was enjoying a hot bath at the moment in preparation for the meeting later with Jaren. The attendants who were waiting on her now were very good and knew their place well. Once she was finished with her bath, the attendants dried her off and dressed her in one of her finer dresses that the seamstress had made for her. She was standing looking into the mirror regarding her own reflection. She liked the long, flame colored hair this Brigette had. It detracted just enough from her eyes as to not make them conspicuous. Her deep crimson red eyes had been at times a source of suspicion and fear to some people. With the flame red hair framing her face, her eyes only looked dark brown unless you looked very closely.

As Allysix examined her reflection, a troubling thought crossed her mind.
The boy Jak should be in the city by now.
There had been no word from her men that had been sent to retrieve him. It had to mean that the boy had either escaped or evaded them. She wanted to find the boy Jak.

The reflection she gazed upon in the mirror gave her an unusual feeling inside…….it reminder her of Jak. She realized that since she had blocked the link with him she had been feeling……lonely. He had been with her, at least inside her head, since her awakening. Now it felt like something was missing, and it was all very troubling. She had never relied on anyone before in her life and she certainly never needed anyone. For that matter, she didn’t need anyone now!
What was she thinking? Were the girl Brigette’s thoughts and emotions seeping through again?
If so then why did they seem so much as if they were her own feelings? This was all very strange to her and she did not like it at all. But it was something that would have to wait. Perhaps she would have Baalnar send some of the City Watch to find Jak later. But right now, she had more important matters to deal with.