Those Who Fear the Darkness (BloodRunes: Book 2) (15 page)

He led her around the maze of hallways with
an ease that amazed her, and when she had been fully turned around
so badly that she could not have found her way back to her room if
her life depended on it, they came to the audience hall.

He opened the door for her and ushered her
inside. She saw that Gryffon had beaten them there and she thanked
the boy and hurried over to sit next to him. He greeted her with a
smile.

“How has Treymayne been treating you?” he
asked her as she took a seat.

“The library has been treating me
fantastically, other than that I’m ashamed to say I haven’t seen
much of anything. It’s a little overwhelming,” she admitted.

“Sorry I haven’t been a proper host to you,
I’m afraid that much of my time has been occupied between relating
news and catching up with people I haven’t seen in a year. I
promise soon I’ll give you a real tour.”

“That would be most appreciated.”

Their conversation was interrupted as the
Ieldran came in and took their places. The Triumvirate, the three
that Gryffon had described as having more influence than the rest,
took the three centermost seats and the rest filed in around them.
It looked to be about twenty members in all and Layna fidgeted
uncomfortably in her seat. She had never before been in a room with
so many important people. These were like the King here. Though she
had been around plenty of higher-ups who passed through Jezebel’s
household, never before had they had any reason to pay any
attention to her. It was making her nervous. Not to mention the
fact that she could hardly breathe anyway in this dress.

The centermost man stood and addressed the
group. “Thank you for joining us. We have a number of issues to
discuss today.” He looked down at the paper before him. “Let’s
start with the report from Lord Gryffon and our honored guest, Ms.
Layna Nyx.” He looked around, his eyes searching for Gryffon who
stood and the man’s eyes rested on him and he nodded, giving
Gryffon leave to speak.

Gryffon related their news once again, and
the council paid rapt attention. When he was finished, there was
silence for a moment.

“Lady Jezebel you say?” commented one of the
three.

Gryffon nodded.

“That brings us to our second important news.
As most of you on the council know, we have been on a welcoming
mission to meet the new emissary from King Nathair.” He glanced at
Gryffon and raised an eyebrow. “Interestingly, it is none other
than Lady Jezebel.”

The man gave Gryffon a look, searching his
face for some sign of dishonesty and Gryffon’s eyebrows rose. He
glanced over at Layna who shrugged her shoulders.

The man continued, “You have seen fit to
ignore your direct orders, take part in the dissolving of the
barrier without first consulting the council, and possibly put
other agents in danger by coming here to bring forth accusations
against the first emissary we have seen from Gelendan for hundreds
of years. Obviously this requires some discussion. If you would
excuse us please,” he directed this to Layna and Gryffon who
absented themselves from the room.

Once they were outside of the chamber,
Gryffon turned to her. “Jezebel? I thought she was dead?”

Though Layna’s cheeks burned with the
accusation that could have come through with those words, she heard
nothing but confusion in his voice. “I don’t know…like I told you,
she was ripped apart by her hounds, but I guess I never actually
went over and checked to make sure, you know? And that would
certainly explain why you have the life-sucker still.”

“Well, this should be interesting,” he
commented ominously.

*

Katya was bored.

She had learned quite a bit about Karl from
her surveillance and had gotten a great deal of amusement out of
his reaction to her escape. She had also gotten immense enjoyment
by taunting him; sending him tokens of her interference in his
life. She had sent him her broken collar once she had sucked all of
the power from it and she left a nasty little present from Marak in
it as well. He had disappointingly been smart enough to check it
for traps and therefore avoided the pain spell he would otherwise
had gotten a full dose of, however.

She didn’t bother being all that careful
about the use of her powers either. The priests were too busy
putting on displays to generate support of magic throughout the
populace to be wasting much energy searching out a few rogue spells
here and there. And besides, it wasn’t like she had a life they
could ruin. She was a shadow, all she had to do was fade into the
darkness.

She had made it a game to flit in and out of
Karl’s life, popping up where he least expected it and his nerves
had been on the brink of fraying when news of Jezebel’s
reappearance had spread. Now he was simply scrambling around, more
interested in finding out what she had been doing to be any fun,
and Katya was quickly losing interest in the game.

Perhaps it was time to pay him a visit.

She grabbed a loaf of bread off a vendor’s
cart as she passed and was out of sight before the man realized it
was gone. She slunk through the alleys and pulled off a chunk of
the bread, popping it into her mouth.

Normally she would contemplate a course of
action and plan every possible outcome, but as her new self she
felt like being spontaneous. So she wound through the streets to
Karl’s manor. She knew he would be in the sitting room by now,
pouring over reports he was too dull to make any sense of and
planning his next pointless scheme.

She walked straight to the front door and
knocked. One of the maids she knew to be called Mary opened the
door. The girl’s eyes opened wide in terror as she recognized
Katya.

Katya smiled. Obviously news of her escape
had already spread throughout the servants. They didn’t know much
about who she was or what she did, but they knew enough to be
frightened.

Mary turned to flee and Katya reached out to
her, making a bridge between them which Marak used to dart across
and bite the girl on the shoulder. She let out a soft “oh!” and
crumpled into a limp heap.

Katya caught her falling body and propped her
up against the wall. The girl would wake in a few hours with
nothing more than a headache. Marak had all sorts of neat tricks in
his bite.

Katya had convinced Karl that it would be
wise of him to let her magick the band into the killing machine
that he was - the perfect partner to her as Karl’s assassin. She
had even discovered how to inject a sickness into people that with
regular visits could cause them to slowly waste away until there
was nothing left and no one was ever the wiser as to the reason for
their deaths. Karl had particularly liked that one, and thought of
it as his own personal plague whenever he sent her out to use
it.

She snarled. Thoughts of him using her
further fueled her hatred and she quickened her pace towards the
sitting room. The intensity of the emotion overcame her, and she
wanted nothing more than to see him dead.

Another servant had the misfortune of
rounding a corner in front of her and she punched him hard in the
face. Blood sprayed out from his broken nose, and Katya plowed on.
She reached the sitting room door and flung it open.

As she had expected, Karl was sitting behind
his desk and he looked up in alarm as the door slammed up against
the wall.

The muscles in his jaw tightened and he
inadvertently let a surprised gasp escape.

“Why hello, Karl,” she drawled to him,
slowing now that her target was in view. She felt another happy
rush. Normally she didn’t enjoy playing with her prey before
killing it - but this was a special case.

He didn’t bother answering, but dived for a
drawer in his desk from which he withdrew a strange-looking object.
Magic emanated from it and Katya knew that though Karl had little
talent himself, he had more than enough money to buy himself much
more powerful magical objects triggered to his command.

She eyed the thing warily as he waved it in
front of him.

He could be bluffing.

She decided to play it like he was, and she
laughed at him.

His hand faltered and her smile broadened.
“You think you can stop me?” she mocked him, and she took a slow
step towards him. “You may not have let me develop my talent in
very many ways, but there is one thing I’m very,
very
good
at.” She paused and took another step closer, bending her head to
him and lowering her voice as if telling him a secret. “Do you know
what that is, Karl?”

He didn’t answer.

“Killing people,” she whispered, and then she
lunged at him.

He threw the object at her and it hit her
hard in the chest. Pain exploded from the spot and radiated
outwards through every nerve in her body.

Apparently he hadn’t been bluffing. She
didn’t let the agony it caused slow her in the least, however, and
she leaped over the desk and landed lithely beside him. He didn’t
even have the chance to pick himself up out of the chair, and she
reached out a hand to lay it on his shoulder to allow Marak easy
access.

As her hand made contact she got a sudden
jolt which made her grind her teeth together in frustration. The
object had weakened her barriers, including those which kept out
Karl’s filthy mind, and at her touch, his thoughts invaded hers
once more. She recoiled immediately, hissing out a breath.

Marak was already on him, however, and Karl’s
knuckles were turning white clutched against the arms of his chair,
his breathing coming in short spurts.

He knew he was dead.

Katya let out a disgusted breath and growled
to the waiting serpent, “Kill him.”

Karl squeezed his eyes shut as Marak’s tiny
fangs bit deeply into the pulsing vein on the man’s neck. The blood
pumped wildly in his intense fear, making them stand out and giving
Marak an easy target.

Two miniature red rivers started oozing down
his neck and his head slumped as the veins that had been popping
out moments before lost their pressure and stopped altogether as
the heart that fed them slowed and died.

Katya stood there staring at his lifeless
corpse for a long time, heedless to the commotion in the hallway.
The pleasure she had derived from his death had been less than she
had imagined.

But she was no longer left without a purpose
in life. In her unwanted contact with him, all his thoughts had
been focused directly on her, and therefore she had been subjected
to all of the lies she had been told throughout the years. But she
had also been given the key to finding the truth, and she meant to
find it.

As the guards finally made their way barging
into the door, all they saw of Katya was the curtains blowing in
the wind from the open window.

*

Nathair felt the flux in the power
immediately. He sat straight up in his chair, and cocked his head
to the side; a physical reaction to his inner sight ‘listening’ for
another ripple of power. He could feel it strongly. It tasted like
his Layna, but it wasn’t.

He sent out a probe. It came up against a
formidable barrier of mind-shields that refused to yield, and his
eyebrows rose in admiration.
This one is strong
. But whoever
it was, they weren’t bothering to shield their power-use. He
watched for a few moments longer, and put a mental tag on the
person so that he could easily find them again, even if they
weren’t using magic at the time.

He felt another momentary twinge that he had
needed to send Devon along to supervise Jezebel. He could use the
man’s expertise here, but if Jezebel’s memory returned there was no
telling how she might react. Her body had healed miraculously fast,
and he was uncertain that his own spells could stop the flow of
memories should the mind repair itself and try and reconnect with
the missing parts. Devon needed to be there to rein her in if she
got too out of control.

Instead, he called one of his elite guards
into the room with a thought. The man entered the room at once and
came to kneel next to him. Devon was still the man’s superior in
most aspects, but he did come close to his expertise in the areas
he needed. Close enough that Nathair was confident he could handle
the particular task he was about to set out for him.

“I have a job for you,” he told the guard and
the man nodded dutifully. “There is a specific person who I want
you to follow. I will spell this stone,” he held up one of the
stones that he kept on his desk for occasions such as these, “to
glow and warm to the touch when you are approaching the one it’s
attuned to. It may take some getting used to using it, but once you
do it will be able to lead you directly to them. Once you have
identified who the person is, you will then contact me via the
stone and I will give you further instructions. Do you
understand?”

“Yes, My Liege.” The man bowed his head and
Nathair nodded.

“Good. Wait a moment outside while I prepare
the stone for you and then you will begin straight-away.”

When the man had left, Nathair drew upon the
Bloodstone around his neck to enchant the other. It had taken some
time to coax the stone into allowing him access to its great wealth
of power, but once he had done so he was able to freely draw upon
it at will.

“What an interesting new development,” his
mother’s voice cut through the silence in his chambers.

Her presence was beginning to irritate him.
“Must you keep popping in like this?”

“Is that any way to treat your mother?” At
his silence, she continued, “So what will you do if you get a hold
of both girls, have them fighting over your affections?”

Though this prospect didn’t displease him,
the mocking tone in her voice kept him from answering affirmatively
and he turned his back to her to concentrate on spelling the stone.
It took little effort to do, especially with the power added from
the Bloodstone, and in no time he was finished.