I hid my braid under the doublet and covered my hair with a scarf. I dressed as a fearless pirate; all that was left was to wear an eyepatch and attach a beard.
The baron was majestic in his Eastern-styled costume: a turban, a gold-embroidered robe...he did leave his usual boots on, however. Dancing in shoes with turned-up toes was quite uncomfortable.
Innis adjusted a blue gauze shawl on her hair. She was dressed as a sea maiden, with bits of foam all over her dress. She wasn’t a mermaid, but a sea sprite, flying about the waves and enticing careless sailors—neither good nor evil, just a trickster, a charming fairy.
“You look magnificent.”
Innis rewarded me with a smile and tried on her mask. With her skin and hair, the deep blue darkness of the fabric seemed especially impressive.
“Well, if my dear cousin is a pirate, I simply have to be the sea. We’ll dance together, won’t we?”
Her gaze was innocent and cheerful. She had no idea how her coyness cut into my heart. Cousin, just a cousin. I have no right to become anything more than that. And when she finds out who I really am...
I could only hope she wouldn’t hate me.
The Baron and I offered her our hands in unison. Innis smiled, grabbed both of us by the elbow, and we headed to the exit, followed by Auntie Madie’s parting requests to have fun.
***
The park was lit by numerous lanterns. At the entrance, soldiers checked the invitations and the servants gave out masks to those who had forgotten that key element of the ball. The music was playing, and the baron immediately took Innis to dance. I was left alone.
If I were human, I would never have gotten away. I wasn’t however, and that night seemed just the right time. And so, the pirate, after stumbling around people for a while, stepping on a few feet, and dancing a few dances, vanished into the darkness. The baron would take care of Innis; I was sure of that. As for me...
The park was called Royal because it was built right outside the walls of the royal palace. I headed inside. There were sentries deployed along the wall, of course, but it’s not like they posed a problem for me.
I switched to my demonic form, pulled off my clothes, and hid them on a tree.
Just like a monkey. So what? At least, my tail is unharmed and they couldn’t tear off my paws!
Climbing a palace wall was no big deal for me. I shot up by holding onto the stones with my claws and reached the nearest dark window, slipped inside, and found myself in a lady’s sanctum. Everything around me was pink and ruffled. Is that Riolonian fashion? Dariola had made something like that out of one of her chambers.
Whatever, let her. I needed to climb out of the window; I could sneak through the palace, but without knowing its architecture, it was dangerous. I didn’t want to kill everyone I stumbled upon. I needed only one man: His Royal Majesty, the king of Riolon, my father-in-law, whom I had seen only once in my life for about four days. He had given away his daughter to me during the wedding and promptly left.
No matter. I have a good memory and luck is on my side.
All right, I didn’t really need much luck; I was a necromancer, after all. And so, I released a tendril of my power.
All who are restless, all who have remained inside the walls of the palace even after their deaths, all who want to be reborn, come to me, and I will help you.
I didn’t have to wait long. The ghost of a pageboy ran out of a wall and fell onto his knees before me.
“Your Majesty!”
“Tell me your name,” I ordered. He was so very young, blond and blue-eyed.
“Vicar Irdan, ready to serve Your Majesty.”
“Why did you die, Vicar?”
“I was murdered because I fell in love with a princess. I confessed to her, and she laughed and ordered me to be executed. They did it right away and her dress got sprayed with my blood. And I...I loved her anyway. I remained with her till the very end.”
“When did it happen?”
“One hundred and twenty-six years ago.”
“What was her name?”
“Ditiran the Mad.”
I remembered that name, and...
“Yes. Your constant presence drove her crazy.”
The ghost immediately transformed.
“Are you going to judge me, mortal? You have never loved anybody!”
Without thinking, I countered his words with the tendril of my power, as if repelling a blow. It coiled around him, strangling him. In vain, the ghost thrashed in its grasp, unable to break free.
“I could dispel it. I could send you to your Ditiran.”
The ghost instantly turned back into a fourteen-year-old page.
“You can?”
“Yes.”
“Then do it! I beg you, necromancer!”
“First, lead me to the king and I’ll release you, I swear.”
The pageboy looked at me, doubtful, but the desire to be reunited with his beloved got the better of him. Even if I was lying, what would he lose? Nothing other than a few minutes of boredom. And if I wasn’t... Still, I wasn’t going to deceive him. I would absolve his soul, and he would go on to the wheel of rebirth, where the soul of Ditiran the Mad had gone all the way back.
“I will lead you there.”
“Nobody should see or hear me, if possible. Where’s the king?”
“He’s in the bedroom. He goes to rest early; he’s getting on in years.”
That was of no consequence. I would cure him of his senility.
The page picked the darkest and the quietest of corridors; he had had over a century to get to know the palace inside and out. On our way, we stumbled upon guards only two times. I killed them by snapping their necks, quick and painless. The men had no time to even understand what had happened. I did feel sorry for wasting innocent lives, but...
After the second guard was dead, we went into a secret passage that, judging by a layer of dust, had been abandoned for a hundred years. We went up, then down, then made a turn. The door in front of us wasn’t especially grand-looking.
“It’s the secret entrance,” the pageboy explained. “You made a promise.”
I put out the feeler, probing the door. True, the king was inside, or at least, his aura. I remembered it and I also had time to study Dariola. The auras of parents and their children are always similar. I turned toward the ghost.
“Go in peace and let the bright lady accept your soul.”
That seemed to be enough. He vanished in a cloud of dark smoke, going on to be reborn, and I touched the door. It was locked, but when had that stopped a half-demon? Especially the one with lock picks? After a nightly stroll through the capital, I had been left with a plethora of various useful mementos. I moved the intricately angled tool inside the lock and slipped inside.
Wonderful!
It really was the royal bedroom, and the king was sleeping in his bed. However, a mistress—or whoever it was—slept right next to him. Unfortunate, but such were the costs.
I had two hands, after all, and two sets of claws. I struck one of them into the king’s throat, never letting him produce a sound, and the other one into his woman. No need to wake them up and tell them why they died. I didn’t come here to give sermons.
Was that cruel? How about foisting his daughter upon me, knowing that I would live only until she conceived my first child? Was that better? Was that just? Was that decent?
The king’s crown lay on a bedside table. Wistfully, I spun it around my finger. Should I take it?
No need; I felt only disgust.
Quietly, I left the bedroom, leaving only two cold corpses in my wake. Finding the way back wasn’t hard, especially since nobody had sounded the alarm yet. I got lucky.
Still, I tried to avoid the bodies of the soldiers I had killed. I made one more turn and found myself in someone’s chambers, which, fortunately, were empty.
The rest was easy. I leaped through the window and climbed down into the park. So, where’s Innis?
***
Innis was having the time of her life.
She danced with the baron, then someone else, then again... Alex, however, seemed to have disappeared somewhere. Still, she was sure that her personal demon was nearby, and that made her feel safe. She might have had one glass of wine too many, however. When the baron, having swept her away in a dance, led her away from a brightly lit alley, she wasn’t too concerned and simply asked him to go back.
Miron agreed, they turned a few corners and stopped at a quiet gazebo. The baron immediately pulled the girl inside.
“What are you doing, Miron?” Innis was surprised.
He didn’t keep her guessing long. Miron put her on a bench and settled next to her feet, so that she couldn’t just stand up and leave.
“Innis, dear, I’m proposing to you. Will you marry me?”
Innis fluttered her long eyelashes.
“But...we don’t know each other at all!”
“Not really. I know everything I want. You’re Innis, Countess Andago, and Sidon Andago is your father. Your mother died a few years ago. By the way, yesterday, your father arrived at the palace.”
“What!”
“He’s begging the king to return his daughter to him, discreetly. Your fiancé is with him, a certain—”
“Riphar Morales!”
Innis was so furious that she instantly sobered up.
“Exactly, dear. So, your only option is a quick marriage and I’m a good match. Soon, you might not have a choice. So far, your father doesn’t know where you are.”
Innis looked at him as if she was seeing him for the first time. He was just like Sidon Andago, after all, just a touch more arrogant...but her father might have been the same when he was young.
“You don’t love me, Miron.”
“Why is that? I do...”
“You just want to use the opportunity. I’ll marry you, you’ll get the title, and I... I will meet the same fate as my mother, won’t I?”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about. So answer me, Innis, yes or no?”
“No.”
Miron smirked viciously.
“Just as I thought. It’s your cousin, isn’t it?”
“W-what!”
“It’s Alex! I see the way you look at him, you wretch! Do you think nobody has noticed that? You were just toying with me!”
“Have you lost your mind, Miron?”
Innis had no time to say anything else. His strong hands squeezed her, wrapped around her like steel rings and the baron’s body, reeking of wine and sweat, fell over her.
Innis struggled helplessly, twisting and turning, trying to break free, but soon, her strength left her. She was also afraid of being noticed; if anybody saw her... Where’s Alex?
Why was she so weak? Why couldn’t she summon a hurricane and blow her attacker away with all of her power?
For a second, she pretended to be weak and went limp, while her rapist was tearing her dress away, but he didn’t buy her feint. Or...
In an instant, the bastard’s body froze, crushing her. Innis doubled down on trying to wriggle free, away from his grasp, but then, somebody just dragged his body away from her.
“Are you all right?”
A tall blonde in a scarlet dress knelt beside her.
“Y-yes.” Innis started to tremble. “He didn’t have time to...”
The blonde grinned.
“Great. Can you walk?”
“Yes...”
“Then go away.”
Clumsily, Innis stood up. Her legs felt like rubber, but... Whatever! She would crawl using her hands if she had to, as long as it got her away from there.
“What about you?”
“I’ll stay here for a while. Go on.”
Innis obeyed and left the gazebo, pulling the remains of her dress to her chest to cover it. Despite her turmoil, she had just the sense to avoid appearing in public in such a state. Her legs gave in.
One minute, only one minute...I’ll sit down on the grass, and that’s it... But she was unable to do even that. The feeling of utter loathing possessed the girl and she started to vomit right under a bush.
And that was how Alex found her: huddled up, shivering, bent over a puddle of stinking bile and wiping her face with a miraculously undamaged handkerchief. What a beauty.
***
If not for my gift, I would have spent an eternity searching for Innis. I came upon her in the far corner of the garden.
And she was...
Holy darkness!
Her dress was torn on her chest, her scarf was gone, she couldn’t stop vomiting, her neck and arms were covered with bruises... What the hell had happened to her?
It wasn’t that big a mystery, though. I had seen this before. I gently pulled her up and carefully wiped her face. She was quivering and kept pressing herself against me.
“Was it Miron?”
“Yes.”
I’ll kill him! Then I’ll raise his body and kill him again! I will destroy the bastard!
“Where is he?”
“Over there, in the gazebo. She told me to leave...”
I didn’t care who “she” was. Instead, I headed to the gazebo, unfaltering in my resolve.
“Alex! Don’t!”
Even a war demon couldn’t stop me, let alone Innis’s words. Violence was always a shock for a woman, but that could be cured if I found the rapist straight away. The rest depended on my imagination and the time I had. Trust me; nothing cheers a person up as well as their enemy’s horns and hooves ripped away.
The gazebo was an unexpected sight. A familiar corpse was lying on the bench, drained dry.
Innis nestled against my shoulder so as to avoid the view. I examined Miron closely. Clearly, that was the work of either a vampire or a succubus. He was practically mummified, drained of both blood and his life force.
Hmm, and what’s that? I carefully lowered Innis onto the bench.
“Keep quiet. I’ll be back in a moment.”
Whoever killed him was a real dirt bag. Innis’ shoe peeked out from under the bench, her scarf was in Miron’s pocket, and a few patches of her dress were strewn around the gazebo.
If I hadn’t gone there to check, she would have been framed. They had found the clues, known who had accompanied Miron and set everything up, knowing that city guards and templars were morons. Miron was a baron, not some alley rat—and he was murdered! I would have to fight my way out and I wasn’t sure I could win.
What’s that? A noise?
I looked over the gazebo once again. No, everything seems fine.
I propped Innis up. Someone was definitely headed our way. It was time to leave.
“Hold on.”
She hung onto my shoulder, limp. My claws, on their own accord, protracted from my fingers and I ran in huge leaps, praying that nobody would notice us.
The noise became distant. I flew over a park wall and turned into an alley. One block, two blocks... I stopped only when I felt that we were safe. It was my demonic instinct, the one that I would have never survived without. Innis sobbed quietly and I swept her up.
“Let’s go home, sweetie.”
“Alex...”
Like a silent shadow, I slid through the streets of Riala, blending into the shadows, shifting from one patch of darkness to the next, holding fast to my precious load.
Woe to the one who dares to cross my path.
***
Auntie Madie was still up and Innis’ appearance horrified her.
“Child! How come!”
Don’t ever trust bastards, that’s how come.
And the house burst with frenzied activity. The dress went into the furnace and Innis got shoved into a hot bath, wherein Auntie Maddie scrubbed her with a large brush. In the meantime, I brewed hot grog in the kitchen. I had to do something, didn’t I?
Too bad we couldn’t destroy the body. They had already found it. There was probably an upheaval at the palace; they had blocked off the
park and were looking for the killer. At least that’s what we would have done in Radenor. I was fortunate to have found Innis in time and that we got away. But who had drained the baron? Innis had said, she. Who was that mysterious woman? I had yet to find out. Whoever she was, she had helped the girl, all right, but what were her motives? There’s help, and then there’s help.
Finally, the women let me inside. Innis sat on the bed, scrubbed clean and wrapped in a huge blanket. Auntie Madie had her hand around her shoulders, trying to calm her down. I handed Innis a big cup of wine.
“Innie, do you need a healer?”
“No.”
“Do you have any other injuries in addition to the obvious?”
“Nope...”
“Alex!” Auntie was exasperated. But that wasn’t nearly enough to get me to stop.
“Please don’t bicker with me, Auntie. I’ve found Innis in a horrible situation. I have to know what happened and what that brute did to her. You should realize that.”
She did.
“Innie, sweetie, can you talk?”
Innis bit her lower lip and took a few sips of grog.
“Yes. We danced, and everything was fun and great. Then Miron took me to the gazebo...”
I kept quiet. I didn’t interrupt her, simply thrust my claws into my palm until it bled. Stupid girl! How could you not know where men take girls they have taken a shining to!
“Miron proposed to me.”
“Oh. Right away?”
It didn’t make sense. He did like Innis, but I had planned on talking to Miron a bit later. Now, if he discovered Innis’ actual last name... He would have married her, no questions asked. But Innis Andio? A dowerless unknown? That seemed fishy, didn’t it?
“At first, he told me how much he liked me. And then he said that my father had arrived at the court.”
“What!”
“Miron knew my real family name. He knew that I was Countess Andago and told me that father and Riphar were already here, asking the king to give me to them so they could marry me off. According to him, my only option was to marry him right away.”
Half-Demon's Fortune Page 12
