His malicious smile widened.
Silvia went onto the balcony, requesting that she be left alone for a while. She closed the tall glass windows and stared over the land. Inside her guestroom the prince, Grant, and the others had a long talk. They told brief stories of how they had come to be in Silvia’s service and what had happened since they had arrived. They talked of Zander as well, for the stones had to be explained once Grant and Dalton noticed that four people were wearing the exact same necklaces. Prince Dalton asked why she wouldn’t use magic against the King, but Keelan told him that Silvia did not want the citizens to believe they’d been manipulated by magic; she wanted to expose him for what he was more than anything. And no one blamed her for wanting to get the throne back as smoothly as possible and with the complete support of the Darkanians. The people of the city would not take too kindly to a strange woman who murdered their King while she was his posing as his guest.
Dalton and Grant revealed some of the rumors going around Darkania about ‘Lady Serena’. It was said that her beauty was so exquisite as to rival some of the goddesses and that any man who looked upon her fell for her completely. The murder of her servant man was believed to have been caused by jealousy between the two men, and that the one who was murdered was her secret lover. Some were saying that she would be King Gregorich’s mistress from now on, and that he invited her to stay with him because she was with child—his child. Many did not have faith in her story of where she came from, and told tales of places far away that had women of her beauty. And of course it seemed that the whole city knew of her helping the homeless and respected her for it. Derik had done his share of telling how Lady Serena had protected him without shame, and the homeless that Dalton and Grant had helped to escape had whispered their tales into listening ears as well before they had vanished into hiding. Stories were now being told of Hapshamin himself. A good number of people were enraged at his desire to use the homeless vagrants in the city for war and the women all seemed to think it improper that he insist on Lady Serena staying at the palace to take part in a man’s council.
Presently, someone rapped loudly on the door. Quentin and Keelan worked their magic, disappearing, and Dalton and Grant hid in Silvia’s bedchamber. Hans answered the door. It was Borys, dressed in a gray tailored suit that had seen better years. “A man is outside the palace and wishes an audience with your mistress.” His sharp brown eyes flickered to Silvia standing alone on the balcony. “Shall I see him in?”
“Who is he?” asked Hans. “Not just anyone is allowed to have audience with Lady Serena.”
“He calls himself Derik, sir.” Borys looked as though that should explain the man’s presence.
“Just a moment.” Hans went to the glass doors that exited onto the balcony, opened them and spoke softly to Silvia. When he returned he told Borys, “Send him in. He is an acquaintance of the Lady.”
Silvia remained alone outside until Derik joined her. He bowed and kissed her hand with respect, but his eyes kept straying to her previously unseen beauty.
“What brings you to my company on such a fine day?” Silvia asked him. What could be so important that he would come to the palace to have a conference with her? The gods only knew she did not need any more attention brought upon herself.
Derik took off the small, round hat on his head and held it in front of him; his hands fidgeted restlessly along the brim. He cleared his throat, started to speak, and cleared his throat again. Silvia waited patiently for him to talk, remembering he was a tad bit shy. Finally he said, “Milady, I come with curious news. I am not sure if this is about you or not, but I thought it might be well to inform you of it anyway.”
“Go on,” she encouraged.
“Well, I had just gotten off of my kitchen duty yester-evening when this strange, bedraggled woman entered the tavern of the Home Away From Home. She had a disheveled appearance that made her look stark-raving mad and she acted very odd. She began to go up to people, grabbing their arms, spinning them around to face her, and babbling away. While the innkeeper, John, was paying me my day’s work, she approached us to ask if we had seen a young woman traveling with several servants. She described someone wearing a veil and a head piece, who was slim in appearance.” He stopped, stuttering a little. “Your company of servants and your disposition led me to believe she was speaking of you. So, I asked her name and why she was seeking a girl by that description. Her attitude turned rather severe. She said her name was Raena and that this ‘Silvia’ had murdered her well-intentioned grandson in cold blood.”
“And did you say anything of me to her?” Silvia was apprehensive.
“I thought it best not to, but John said that someone of that description had left the inn several days ago, and that she was going by the name Lady Serena.”
“Oh dear.” Silvia turned away and walked to the edge of the balcony. She looked far and wide, but felt small and helpless. “Where is this woman now?”
“She took a room near mine at the inn and asked no more questions of you. If you would, Lady Serena, is she speaking of you? Have you really murdered someone?”
She sighed and spun around slowly. “I am afraid she is speaking of me; however I have never harmed anyone, much less killed them.”
“How can she speak so ill of such a respectable woman?” Derik muttered. He contemplated her words, and then nodded. “My back is very badly bruised, and my body aches from my experience with Madam Brooke’s cane five nights ago. My mind is now filled with the thoughts of your compassion on that night, and I cannot honestly say that I think you would kill anyone…milady, there is still so much I owe you. What would you have me to do?”
Chapter Sixteen—The Dungeon Queen
Raena was eating a light lunch in the tavern, thinking about her plans. The innkeeper had informed her that ‘Lady Serena’ had stayed there and Raena snorted at the thought. Silvia passing as a woman of stature? Well, she would show her…
Completely immersed in her thoughts, she did not see the three men enter the inn. One pointed in her direction and watched as the other two came up to her. Her chain of thought was broken as the men sat down across the table.
“Who are you?” she asked warily. She was an outsider in this city and was in search of a murderess. She needed to be careful.
The older man spoke. “We hear you are on the hunt for a certain woman by the name of Lady Silvia.”
Her heart began to beat faster and she set down her sandwich quickly. She had no cares about who these good citizens were, now that she knew why they were seated at her table. “What do you know?” she said eagerly.
“Only this,” the striking black-haired fellow said, “that she left the city yesterday morning.”
The news was extremely disappointing. She had thought she was so close! Her mood quickly went sour again. “Where did she go?” she asked sharply.
The slightly older man answered. “No one is really sure, but we heard it might be somewhere near Crider.”
“You’re not sure? Well I simply must catch up to her,” she mumbled to herself. Then to the men, “Excuse me, gentlemen.” She went off in search of the innkeeper, trying to remember his name. Jim? James? Behind her the two men left unseen on fine horses, bound for the palace.
She found the innkeeper outside with the chickens; he was feeding them shelled corn and seeds. “Pardon me, Jesse—“
“The name is John,” the innkeeper interrupted tartly.
Raena ignored him and continued. “I have just been informed that the girl I am looking for has taken off to Crider. No one knows if she is going to that city or one near it, nor why she has left, although it is likely she knows I am now on her trail. So, I must also take leave.”
John smiled inwardly with relief. The woman had appeared the night before in a crazed state, seeking information. When she had found the knowledge she sought, she began begging people for spare change so that she might rent a room for the evening and have something to eat. Indeed, and muc
h to John’s displeasure, she had gathered enough snicks to rent a small chamber for the night and buy two large meals. But he knew she would not have enough snicks to rent for another night without leeching more coins from his respectable customers. That was something he did not care for at all: He did not allow beggars into his inn. So upon hearing this news, he was very pleased. He always said he wished his inn to be known for its good standing, and that it was profitable for him when people heard how nice his inn was compared to others. So, he decided to help the woman out a little, as much as he didn’t want her returning. “Well, madam, when she left the Home Away From Home, she went to stay at the palace. Perhaps someone there knows for sure whither she went.”
Minutes later, Raena had talked herself into a dirty old carriage with an old man and his wife, who were heading in that direction.
Silvia, Hans, and the two brothers rode to Zander’s home for lunch so that Silvia could practice with Keelan on throwing daggers. After a while of practicing that, she wanted to practice transforming into the dragon. As she stood by herself at the Tambian’s edge, she changed into the dragon over and over until she could change almost instantly in a fluid motion. It seemed to get easier and more natural every time her body’s form shifted. She got a breathless exhilaration each time the scales began to cover her body, and by the gods—she was big! In dragon form she was a over twelve feet tall and was an easy a thousand pounds of wings, scales, tail, teeth, and hard muscle. Gazing at the mirrored image of herself in the rippling water, she wondered at the majestic beauty of such a creature: so great and terrible and horrifying, yet so elegant and graceful and powerful. A truly royal beast. She stared at herself in awe and respect.
However, she wished to do more than just stare at her watery reflection…she wanted to test her wings. Tentatively, she stretched them out to their full width—over twenty feet from wingtip to wingtip. She watched a couple of birds take off from the trees nearby, looking at their flying strategy. She began to flap her wings; strong gusts of air whooshed all around her and upon glancing down she was astonished to see that she was several feet off the ground. She flapped her wings harder, using surprisingly little energy, and over the treetops she went, soaring above the lush green boughs. She circled the immediate area several times, gathering speed. Then, seeing Zander standing outside his little cottage with the others, she raced down from the heavens and alighted with a slight trembling of the ground.
“Well, my dear!” Zander exclaimed in a startled tone.
“I never imagined seeing something like this,” said Dessica. She set her mug down beside Geremy’s on the small table they had brought out onto the porch, and smiled at the man next to her warmly.
There was still one more thing Silvia wanted to try. She stood on her back legs and pointed with long, leathery, taloned hands towards the water trough beside the road and spoke in deep, guttural tones. Zander watched the trough change into a giant striped cat and back again. He thought he understood what she was trying to do.
“So you can still use powerful magic when you’re a dragon!” he said. “Splendid!”
Silvia changed back to her human form, beaming with pride.
“Is there anything you cannot do?” Hans asked.
“I do not know.” She shrugged. “But I know there is nothing I won’t try. The throne will be mine soon.”
Raena was dropped off less than a quarter mile from the palace. She straightened her skirts and smoothed out the wrinkles as she began walking. And while she walked, she started to think of all that had happened in the past week and a half. She still ached for her beloved grandchild. He had not deserved to die—especially at the hands of a woman who had been the one dearest to his heart. A stab of jealousy pained her. How could he have given all of his love to her? Shouldn’t he have loved Raena more than any other woman? After all, she loved him and had raised the dear child almost as her own. Why had he wanted to marry that girl so badly? Silvia must be one of Jorgul’s servants, causing disruption and mayhem wherever she went.
And Raena’s poor, poor roses! So beautiful and healthy, just as Venicius had been. Oh, damn that wretched redheaded girl! Because of Silvia her precious ‘reds’ were rotting in the ground, and Venicius was now doing the same.
Her thoughts wandered to her meeting with Dessica and how she had plied the right information out of the woman. It had been so easy to discover where Silvia had been going, and almost as easy to sneak away from Dessica and Geremy. Anger flared up from the pits of her stomach at the thought of her husband. He had switched sides and come after her as would a hound dog, along with that hateful mother of the murderess. They had raced her until the back wheels broke and her stupid horse collapsed, causing her to be thrown from the cart. And she didn’t even want to think about washing horse manure out of her hair and off her face.
Her face reddened as she remembered and humiliation ran down her face in the form of salty tears. Betrayal by the man she had loved for decades was too much for her to think about.
She recalled the days she had spent with Baird and felt a coil of revulsion waiting to be sprung inside her. The man had been nice enough at first, but he liked to drink as he rode. And the more he drank, the friendlier he became…until the third night. That was the night Baird became so intoxicated with his own liquor that he attempted to rape her. However, he had ended up passing out on top of her while in the process of trying to keep her skirts lifted. She had managed to roll him off and grabbed a small hatchet lying atop a basket full of odds and ends in the cart. When Baird woke up late the next morning, she threatened to hack off certain male body parts if he so much as thought of trying that again. Baird consented to this forceful request and stayed sober the rest of the trip, likely fearing that she might use the weapon against him in revenge or for spite. Once in Darkania, he had dropped her off in a side street and made his way to a ram-shackle, two-story house, where half-clad women beckoned to him.
“Watch where you’re going!”
The harsh voice brought Raena back to the present and she realized that she had walked right into the belly of one of the Royal Guards.
“I am so terribly sorry!” she said, curtseying. “I was distracted by this horrible news I have come to give to the King of this wondrous city.”
“And what news does a common woman have to give to royalty?” the Guard barked.
Raena put on a grave face to match her mood. “One of his guests murdered…” She looked off, trying to decide whether or not to tell the lie.
But she had struck a chord of curiosity and the Guard prompted her. “Murdered whom?”
Her eyes teared up and her breath quickened. “She murdered my whole family.”
Gregorich stared at the Guard with mild surprise. “Send her in, I suppose. There’s no harm in hearing the woman out. Maybe she has an interesting story to tell.” He did not say that he was thinking of Lady Serena or her servant woman, even though they were his only female guests. The woman brought before him had her gray hair pulled so tightly into a bun that it stretched her facial features to a nearly comical point. Her brown leather boots were steeped in dry mud and the hem at the bottom of her dress was dirty as well. Her gnarled hands were clasped at her stomach, her eyes wide with an emotion he could not recognize.
“My Lord,” she said, and bowed awkwardly.
Gregorich caught himself staring at her muddy boots, wondering why she had not bothered to clean them before appearing in front of a king. “What is it you have to tell me?” he asked, pulling his eyes from her apparel and walking around his desk. He had little patience for those who cared not how they looked in front of royalty.
Raena could tell by the King’s tone that he was impatient. Clearly he was not one who appreciated others galloping about the subject. “You have a woman going by the name of Lady Serena staying here as your guest, do you not?”
“Yes. What of her? Hurry woman, for I have other matters that need my attention.”
“Your Hi
ghness, she is not who she says she is.”
Hapshamin rolled his eyes. “Tell me something which I do not know.”
Raena smiled wickedly. “I know her real name, for one, and I know where it is she comes from.”
The King leaned forward to listen.
Silvia and the others arrived at the palace early in the evening to excited rumors of a dragon sighting just outside the city—the first in over two hundred and fifty years. Silvia tried to appear astonished at the thought of a dragon back on this side of the Great Water, even though on the inside she was elated that the rumor had reached the confines of the palace. Perhaps Gregorich Hapshamin would hear that one of his nightmares was sighted and would be hiding away in his rooms somewhere.
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