Turnia’s blue eyes glared at me for a few moments before she spoke.
“I asked what conditions you had. Then you sat there and stared at the floor.”
“My mind wandered. I apologize.”
“I am eager to bring this to a close, Pretender. Tell me what you want and then give me your testimony.” She seemed to relax a bit, but her two guards still eyed me skeptically.
My mind raced and I struggled to remember what I had intended to ask. The memories meshed with the feeling of bathing with Iolarathe, but once I recalled the earlier part of the memory with my lover, I felt more confident about my plan, though it was still incredibly risky.
“You said that I will be given comforts and pleasure for the remainder of our journey?”
“Yes,” she confirmed.
“What does that include?”
“A larger tent, new clothes, as much food as you want, and regular baths. I could even allow the removal of your shackles,” the hawk-featured woman said.
“How about companionship every night?”
“I could arrange a nightly massage, but I won’t force any of my people to fuck you, Pretender.” She shook her head.
“I am not inferring that one of your women fucks me.”
“Then?” Her word hung in the air for a few seconds before I saw the realization dawn on her face.
“You said you would torture and execute her if I confirmed your suspicions,” I said.
“Yes. That is my intention.” She nodded slowly and I couldn’t read her expression.
“Give her to me for the duration of our trip. After I am executed you can do what you will with her.”
“No.” Telaxthe realized that we were speaking about her and seethed the word. “I would rather die.” The empress wasn’t begging or demanding, but her eyes were molten fire and glared at me with the heat of a dozen suns.
“If only everyone could choose their fate, Telaxthe. I know my brother would have preferred to die in a nobler way.” Turnia turned back to me and our eyes met for a few seconds.
“I wonder at your motivation,” she said at last.
“I am attracted to their kind. I find her beautiful even though she hates me. The knowledge that she finds me disgusting will add some spice to our fucking.” The words were distasteful in my mouth, but they needed to be said to convince Turnia. Part of it was true. I did find Telaxthe beautiful and she did hate me, but I would not force a woman into sex.
“I doubt I will be able to let you possess her after I deliver you to the Council. So I will only commit to keeping her alive until then.”
“But you can ask them?”
“Yes. But I doubt they will want to give you any of the comforts I have promised. I will ask.” She shook her head slowly. “I do not know if you are ill in the mind or diabolical in your heart. I do know that you are not the real Kaiyer by any stretch of the imagination. The Betrayer loathed the Elvens and would have had nothing to do with their women.”
I shrugged my shoulders and turned to the empress. She stared straight ahead into the blank canvas of the tent and did not make eye contact with me. Vernine’s ruby eyes met mine and I wondered if she guessed at my intentions.
“What of Dissonti, Vernine, and the empress’s servants? Will they be free to go as you promised?” I wanted to ensure Vernine would live through this ordeal.
“I said Dissonti could leave safely if Telaxthe cooperated.” Turnia turned to the empress and the Elven woman gave a slight nod but didn’t adjust her gaze. “If Vernine and these servants had no part in my brother’s murder, then they may leave as well. We can determine that after the empress gives you the information you want and you tell me of my brother. Is there anything else?”
“Yes. The empress has some Mastkur.” As soon as the words left my mouth the three O’Baarni women leaned slightly.
“She does?” Turnia raised a dark blonde eyebrow and regarded Telaxthe. Her cool demeanor seemed to crack for a half a second.
“A few pounds. I would like to enjoy it with you on the night before we leave this world.”
“I will gladly agree to that,” she said to me without looking in my direction. “Where do you keep the Mastkur, bitch?” Turnia asked Telaxthe. The empress turned to one of her servants and nodded. The man rushed out through the rear curtain and I assumed he would produce the intoxicating meat shortly.
“What else?” Turnia looked back at me.
“That is all.” I shrugged again and forced my face to make a dumb smile.
“Fine.” She turned to the empress. “Tell this Pretender what he thinks he needs to know. If you try to withhold anything, I’ll have Dissonti butchered in front of you.” The jade-haired woman aimed her emerald eyes at Turnia and bit her lower lip with frustration. She didn’t seem afraid, just annoyed.
“I will comply if it means any of my kin can be spared,” Telaxthe said. The male servant came from the back of the tent carrying a large cedar chest. He walked to his empress, but she indicated with a nod of her head to place the treasure before Turnia.
“This is illegal for you to possess, Telaxthe.” Turnia shook her head when the Elven set down the chest. “Open it,” she commanded and the man did so with great reverence.
I couldn’t see because of the angle of the lid, but I did smell the euphoric meat drift through the air. The two women next to Turnia had mirrored expressions of awe and desire plain on their pretty faces. Their leader remained composed, but I guessed from the widening of her pupils that she desired the flesh as much as her companions.
“Perhaps I owe you a few favors, Pretender. It is possible that I would have never discovered this bounty without you.” She made a small smile, closed the chest, and then turned slightly to the empress. “Begin now.”
Telaxthe exhaled and then faced me.
“Nyarathe’s journals are the main source of this information since Iolarathe left no written record.” She addressed Turnia, “The O’Baarni were never interested in documenting any of their past, so most of what happened following our war was lost.”
“Our sklads tell the tales of the Betrayer, and they are common knowledge now.” I was surprised Turnia even bothered to defend herself against Telaxthe.
“Five thousand years can corrupt stories, but that is another argument.” The empress turned her eyes back to me. I was surprised at the control she had over her emotions, but Telaxthe had not risen to lead the Elven people by displaying her feelings openly. Still, death loomed over her shoulder, and I was sure she felt great despair in spite of her apparent composure.
“In these journals, Nyarathe documented most of the war efforts and the various strategies her sister employed.” The empress paused for a moment and then glanced back to Dissonti before continuing.
“Nyarathe escaped after the Destroyer’s armies defeated the dragons. She led a few hundred refugees away from the battle and to the deserts of Green Solo. Eventually she settled there and occupied herself with saving our race from the humans. Iolarathe also survived and found her sister ten or twelve years after the war.”
“You don’t know the exact date?” I asked. The detail probably didn’t matter in the long run but I thought it odd that Telaxthe’s records were not dated correctly.
“No. I don’t have all of her journals, unfortunately. Many have been lost throughout the years or been rewritten by our elders.”
“Sounds like your written history is not much better than our spoken word,” Turnia mocked.
“Our kind has endured thousands of years of oppression from your people. You’ve hunted our skulls, denied us freedoms, and burned thousands of our temples. We would still have the documents if not for your kind,” the empress said the words softly and Turnia’s mocking smile faded.
“Hunted skulls?” The term sounded odd to me. I could understand killing Elvens, but why make sport of their bones?
The group of Elvens and O’Baarni turned to me with a combined look of puzzlement. Even the Elven servants gazed upon me as if I was asking them what color the blue sky was. The empress tilted her head and her bronze hair fell down to one side of her neck like a waterfall.
“The O’Baarni use our skulls to make Ovules,” she stated, as if explaining a basic fact of life to a child.
“Why?” Her explanation didn’t make sense to me.
“That is how they are created.” Dissonti’s emerald eyes bored into mine with a strange intensity.
“That is the only way?” I recalled a memory of molten heat covering my head and endless screams. It made my skin crawl and my heart began to race.
“Yes. It is the only way. And Ovules are the only objects that power the Radicles,” Dissonti said. “You did not know this?”
“No.” I sighed and shook my head. “Why did you ever think that your people could be free?” I asked Telaxthe. “The O’Baarni live too long. They need access to other worlds or they will destroy each other with overpopulation.”
“Is it so foolish to want freedom for your people? Even if the odds against you are unmeasurable?” Her amber eyes narrowed. “You know the answer.”
“It is not our purpose to destroy the Elvens, Pretender. My brother and I were the loudest voices that demanded they be allowed to have this world. They earned it from victory at the Games,” Turnia said. “That is why I am so outraged by Telaxthe’s betrayal!” the O’Baarni leader seethed and the tension in the already electric air seemed to come close to a boil.
“I can understand your anger.” I had to calm down the situation. At least until the empress told me what I needed to know. “My father and brother were murdered while I watched.”
“Then you are a coward. You should have defended them.” Her blue eyes cracked for a second, maybe only a part of a second, and I could see the terrible pain behind them.
“I was only a human. I wanted to die with them but their murderer thought torture was a better punishment. I finally escaped and then set out on the path of revenge.” Turnia recovered from her emotions by the time I finished speaking and she turned her attention back to the empress. Then the sharp-featured woman motioned with a twisting finger that she wished the Elven to continue.
“Accompanying Iolarathe was a child. The writings describe her as fiercely intelligent and curious. The girl was a half-breed,” Telaxthe said.
“Human and Elven?” Turnia asked. The anger was gone from her voice and she seemed genuinely curious.
“So the journals say.”
“Then your writings are wrong,” the tall O’Baarni woman said. “I’ve been alive for seventy-two years and never heard of such a thing. Our kind cannot make children with yours.”
“Nyarathe’s writings indicate that she believed as you did. Her sister claimed that the child was Kaiyer’s. The girl confirmed the story.”
“The Betrayer was captured after the war. Even if he had a child, it wouldn’t have been with one of your whores. The man was only interested in taking Shlara from Malek,” Turnia stated factually. I wanted to scream at her to shut her fucking mouth but held back my rage. There was nothing good that could come from me telling the woman any sort of truth.
“Is there more?” I asked. I kept my voice at a whisper.
“Nyarathe wrote that they only stayed with her for a single night. Iolarathe believed that she was being followed by warriors from Shlara or Alexia’s army. The child asked her mother to sketch her father’s face. The writing in the journals confirmed that there were apparent similarities between the human man’s face and the child that Iolarathe claimed was her daughter.”
“Was the child named in the writings?” My heart leaped into my chest and the edges of my vision began to cloud.
“No.” She shook her head and the breath left my body with a cold rush of defeat. I didn’t know what I expected, but I wished there had been at least a name. Maybe even a better description of the girl. Something, anything that could have given me hope that I would know her better.
But even this small scrap was worth my trouble. I remembered being in Nyarathe’s home and the canvas that her daughters had knocked over when they fled. I wish I would have known that my lover created the drawing for our daughter to view.
Why had the girl not taken it with her?
“Is there anything else?” My voice cracked and I blinked away tears. Fuck. I didn’t want any weakness to show in front of these women, but my emotions were a flooding river in my chest.
“They left the next morning. Iolarathe refused to tell her sister their destination. She was convinced that it would put them all at risk.”
I recalled my earlier memory. Iolarathe had told me that our daughter went through the Radicle and was waiting for her mother on the other side. This information from Telaxthe did not give any hints I could use to help confirm her location or even if the girl was still alive.
“There is one more part you might find interesting. A few days after Iolarathe left, her spies reported that a single traveler had entered the tavern in the settlement.”
“Deadflats,” I said. Telaxthe nodded at the name I gave for the small salt city, not revealing any surprise that I remembered it. She knew who I was.
“There were O’Baarni stationed in this town. Nyarathe always thought their presence strange and she documented the dates she saw them replaced with fresh troops. They were posted at the city for some reason, but didn’t seem to be investigating any Elven presence there. In fact, Nyarathe suspected that the O’Baarni actually knew she was operating in Deadflats, but didn’t care. They made a point to speak to every stranger that ever entered the city. On this particular night, a few days after her sister visited, Nyarathe had the epiphany that Kaiyer was still alive and was being hunted by his army. Sure enough, this new arrival was the Destroyer and the O’Baarni in the city attempted to capture him.”