Authors: Hilari Bell
“I told you I can’t control my mother.”
“I can control her. What I need you to do is to find out if she planted her dangerous little seeds anywhere else. I’ve taken care of the western coast, but it will be easier to stop the same trouble in other places if I can get to it before it
sprouts. I’m going to write to her, demanding she tell me who she’s contacted and giving her reasons to answer. Your job—you’ll carry my letter—will be to talk to her confidentially and make sure she gives me a complete list. She’s not above forgetting one or two, or a dozen, of her fellow conspirators.”
Outrage warred with disbelief. “You want me to spy on my mother?”
“You know how important the relocation is, but resistance to the idea still exists. We need to start moving Southland towns this summer, and the rest of the Realm will have to follow in the next few years. Your mother made a lot of friends when she served the Hierarch’s mother, and many of those people hold influential positions. If she continues throwing out her little arguments…For all I’ve accomplished, the relocation is still balanced on a knife edge. If your mother stops the relocation, she could be responsible for the death of the entire Realm—and I’m sure you don’t want that any more than I do. You can go…Hmm. It’ll take both you and Nevin to get the Hierarch through the Equinox Ceremony. That’s four days from now. You can leave for your home the day after.”
Master Lazur was already turning to the pile of papers that had accumulated during his absence. Anger burned through Jeriah—how easily this man dismissed his scruples.
“I’m afraid you have more to deal with than my mother, sir.”
Jeriah pulled the medicine jar from his tunic and rapped it down on the desk. The priest’s eyes widened. His face stilled. Jeriah cherished a heady sense of power.
“What’s this?” Master Lazur asked.
“You know what it is.”
The priest sat for a moment, eyeing the plain dark crockery. Then he rubbed his face wearily and rose to his feet. “I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to do this.”
Jeriah turned to face Master Lazur as he came around the desk, but the priest went over to the door. A single gesture summoned a passing page, and Master Lazur bent to murmur in his ear. The boy cast Jeriah a startled look and dashed off.
Was he going for the guard? For someone else to help Master Lazur? Any kind of disturbance would draw attention to Jeriah’s accusation, and that had to be the last thing the priest wanted!
Master Lazur returned to his seat behind the desk, leaving the jar in plain sight between them.
“I deny knowing what that is. If I go on denying it, can you prove I do?”
“Do I need to? The accusation alone would make your life a
lot
more difficult. I don’t think you want the Hierarch to recover, no matter who gets blamed.”
“I’ll admit my life is difficult enough right now.” Mockery danced in the priest’s eyes.
Why wasn’t he frightened?
“I take it you haven’t found my spell notes.”
“What makes you think that?” Jeriah asked.
“Because you’re attempting to do it this way. Though that doesn’t necessarily follow. You could be trying this because you’ve discovered that no one can steal the notes.”
No one can steal them? Even if he knew where they were? Where…? Of course! Even if you found them,
you couldn’t get them out
! But he couldn’t be certain. Test it!
“Oh, I gave up trying to steal them when I learned you’d put them in the vault.”
“I thought you would; that’s why I put them there. But how did you learn…? Ah! From me, just now. Very good!”
He leaned back in his chair, laughing. Jeriah’s elusive sense of power had evaporated, leaving dread in its wake.
“Don’t count on doing that again, lad. You know, Tobin’s probably ill already—he’ll be dead in a few weeks. Did it ever occur to you that if I’m arrested for treason, all my papers will be confiscated? There’s no way you could save your brother if that happened.”
“True, but I doubt you’ll let it go that far.”
“You’re right about that. In fact, I’m going to stop this right here. I suppose you’ve written out your suspicions and given them to someone in the traditional sealed envelope, to be opened if anything happens to you?”
“I wrote to a friend and enclosed the sealed note. It’s not anyone in my family. You’d never find him.” A safe statement, since Jeriah hadn’t sent any such note. He hoped the
fabrication would draw Lazur’s attention away from the palace and Chardane.
“That’s a pity, because you’re going to want that sealed note back. Because if anything happens to me, and there’s the slightest evidence you had a hand in it, Lord Brallorscourt will open
my
sealed envelope and find papers that will condemn your father to disgrace and probably death. Unlike you, I have proof—not just suspicion.”
Master Lazur’s gaze was steady, the sardonic humor gone. Jeriah remembered how he’d felt when the dike started to tremble beneath his feet.
“Proof of what? My father never did anything wrong in his life!” Jeriah tried to sound contemptuous, but the quaking in his belly found its way into his voice.
“Didn’t you ever wonder what price your father paid for your brother’s life?”
“He bribed the judges. He had to sell a lot of land.”
“Others sold land and offered bribes. It didn’t save them. But in your brother’s case there was a favor we needed. A favor from a man of impeccable integrity. A man no one would ever believe would give false testimony.”
“What are you saying?”
“Lord Glovinscourt, Jeriah. He opposed the relocation, and he was rich enough to stir up trouble. Unfortunately, he wasn’t involved in the conspiracy—a sign of good taste on the part of the conspirators, I might add. He was a despicable man. When it was his word against your father’s, no
one believed him for a minute. He went to his death on your father’s oath, but your father lied. And to lie a man’s life away is a crime for which your father would be stripped of rank and lands. If they let him live at all.”
“I don’t believe a word of this! My father would never lie under oath.” But it accounted for so much: why he’d taken Tobin’s disgrace so hard; why he’d become a recluse—he’d been trying to protect the rest of his neighbors. Even his anger at Tobin…Jeriah wiped his hands on his thighs. “I don’t believe you.”
It was a lie, and the priest knew it.
“It doesn’t matter whether you believe me or not; I have—” Someone rapped politely on the door, and the priest rose to answer. “I have proof. Though I don’t blame your father—no one practices honor when it matters. I’m not being unreasonable about this, either; Brallorscourt will only act if he believes that you’re behind my…difficulties. Give up trying to blackmail me, lad. You’re an amateur.” He opened the door.
Senna stood there, with two guards gripping her arms. Her face was streaked with dirt and tears.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “So sorry.”
“What’s going on here?” Jeriah’s voice sounded hollow in his own ears. Did this have something to do with his mother’s scheme? Had she used Senna—
“Your mother was using your sister as her agent,” Master Lazur said calmly. “And there are dozens of witnesses who’ll
testify to that—truthfully, as it happens. She’s only doing it to put pressure on me, but conspiracy to thwart the Hierarch’s orders can merit the death penalty if it threatens the safety of the Realm. And trying to stop the relocation definitely qualifies.”
Senna’s face went white. Jeriah drew a shuddering breath. “Let her go.”
“Unfortunately, I need her to make your mother behave. I was going to confine her to a room in the lady’s maids’ quarters, but with all of you Rovans being so…active, I think she’d better go to a cell. At least for the next…three weeks? No, make it a month, so everyone can be certain. See to it,” he told the guards.
In a month there would be no chance that Tobin was still alive.
“Wait! You don’t have to lock her up. I’ll…”
He’d what? Give up trying to save his brother?
Senna was crying as the guards dragged her away. Every muscle in Jeriah’s body shook with the need to follow, to wrest her out of their hands and keep her safe—but that wouldn’t keep her safe; it would only end with him in a cell beside her. He had to keep his wits, to stay free. To find some way to prevent this priest from destroying everyone he loved.
“Did you blackmail Tobin into helping you in the first place? Did you…” He stopped, but not in time.
“Did I use your involvement in the conspiracy against
him? There was no need—his own problems were lever enough. And I’ve never found proof of your guilt. I haven’t tried very hard. You don’t believe it now, but we can still work together.”
“I’d rather die than serve a man like you!”
Master Lazur shook his head. “A man like me…because I’m willing to make sacrifices for the good of the Realm? What are you doing right now, except sacrificing the Hierarch to save your brother?”
Jeriah was silent.
The priest went on. “You’re not evil, and neither am I. You have courage and intelligence—and when the relocation commences, we’ll need all the brains and courage we can get. Once you’ve gotten those names from your mother, I’ll send your sister home. By then enough time will have passed that you’ll have no further reason to defy me, but—”
“Because Tobin will be dead!” Jeriah put in bitterly.
“Precisely. And you might bear in mind that I didn’t send him into the Otherworld—in fact, I was trying to stop him! Hmm. This will be hard for someone your age to accept, at least for a while. I believe I’ll let Nevin return to the Hierarch and send you to the border for a time. Brallorscourt may object, but I can use someone to keep an eye on things there, and it will remind you why the relocation is important. You can go there straight from your home—I’ll send a courier to bring back your mother’s list. It’s almost summer on the border, but since the barbarians took the Southlands there’s
still some action. I’ll probably bring you back before the winter campaign—though you might be needed more in the south. Anyone who can lift a sword will be needed for that, I fear. You can leave for your home right after Equinox.”
“That’s only four days!”
Tobin would have been ill almost a week by then—Jeriah’s time was running out.
“Which will leave you no time to hatch futile, dangerous schemes. Because if those spell notes vanish from the vault, I’ll use my evidence against your father. And if anyone in your family stirs up inconvenient rumors, I’ll charge your mother and sister with conspiring against the Bright Gods’ will. Give it up, lad. Tobin will be dead in week, two at the outside. Accept his death.” He came around the desk and opened the door, ending the interview. “There’s no way to reach your brother in time. Unless…”
“Unless what?” Jeriah was on his feet, shaking with rage.
“You’ve tried blackmail. Had you thought to try bribery? Some of the conspirators survived, and we know at least one of their leaders escaped. If someone you know—your friend who holds the envelope perhaps?—could name a few of those survivors, I might be persuaded to give up my spell notes. If we capture the leader, I’ll forget about the charges against your mother and sister and cast your gate spell myself!”
“Why should I believe anything you say, demon spawn?”
“Because the conspirators, even the small number that remain, are more dangerous to the Realm than a handful
of goblins and a hedgewitch. And with your brother home, your mother would have no reason to cause more trouble. I’m always willing to trade up. Think it over. Just don’t think too long.”
Jeriah found himself walking in the wood that covered part of the palace grounds without remembering how he got there, but he desperately needed to be alone.
Trapped.
He even knew where the cursed notes were! Master Lazur must have enjoyed watching him blunder around the palace, knowing the notes were safe in the heavily guarded vault. No wonder he hadn’t been worried when Jeriah broke into his office. Even if the goblins
could
steal them, Master Lazur would destroy his father.
His father, who had lied a man to his death! Admittedly, Glovinscourt wasn’t much loss…. But with that on his own conscience, how dared the old man be so angry with Jeriah over an accident! Although flooding that village might have cost lives. That was why his father had been so angry.
Was Master Lazur right, that no one practiced honor when it mattered?
The trees began to thin, moonlight shining on the surface of the ornamental lake. Jeriah turned and plunged back into the woods at a different angle. Even if he could get the notes—out of a stone vault with iron doors surrounded by the sunsguard—Chardane wouldn’t cast the gate spell unless he destroyed Master Lazur. Which he couldn’t do, because
the priest would then destroy Jeriah’s family.
Senna had never been in serious trouble in her life—much less locked up in a cell! She must be sick with terror.
Tobin was probably sick already. How long would it take the goblins to find him in the Otherworld? Jeriah might be too late, even if he got that gate cast tomorrow!
In four days Chardane would move against Master Lazur herself. As soon as it came out that the Sunlord was being drugged, Master Lazur would know Jeriah had been part of it, and then…He had to stop Chardane. But how?
There was one way. A cold hand wrapped around Jeriah’s heart and he pushed the thought aside. He came to another edge of the wood; the Hall of Justice loomed through the trees. He turned back, walking faster, but the idea intruded again.
If he turned Chardane over to Master Lazur, he could save both Tobin and his family. But Chardane would die, taking dozens, perhaps hundreds with her. That would be as bad as anything Master Lazur had done. To destroy property was one thing; for destroying lives there was no reparation. Tobin wouldn’t want to be saved at such a price!
But if Jeriah didn’t stop Chardane, most of his family would die. What would happen to Tamilee, if everyone she loved was executed?
That was what Koryn had experienced. No wonder she was obsessed with avenging her family—it was a miracle she was walking around sane!