by Rachel Lee
Those who could see him gasped and fell back.
“Ilduin fire not only heals, it purges and cleanses. Before you face the evil we must battle, you must cleanse yourself, Maluzza Forzzia, for evil draws evil to itself. If you are to protect your people and lead them in this fight, you must be free of true evil yourself!”
Tom’s finger had risen and pointed at the emperor. “The Ilduin will cleanse the hive from the palace, but who will cleanse the throne?”
Alezzi looked as if he wanted to step forward and silence Tom, as if he feared what the emperor might order after being treated in this utterly unprecendented way. Sara, too, appeared poised to protect her husband.
But after a few seconds, it became apparent it would not be necessary.
“No one has spoken to me so truly in a long time,” Maluzza said heavily. “Alezzi, you have stayed away too much.”
Alezzi sighed. “I could not bear to be here.”
“So you, too, realized.”
Alezzi bowed his head slightly.
“I have been receiving poor counsels.” The emperor looked around the room at all the gathered people. “How can I govern well if no one tells me the truth? If no one reminds me of what is good and true?”
No one answered. Not a single voice.
“Scribe!”
A man bearing a tablet and pen hurried forward. “My emperor?”
“Write me a law this very instant. Free all slaves and ban the ownership of slaves, under penalty of prison. And add that any of my soldiers who enrich themselves by engaging in the slave trade will forfeit their lives and their property.”
The gasps and murmurs that filled the room then could have grown to a deafening crescendo quite quickly as the scribe began to write.
“My emperor,” a guard announced. “The Ilduin have arrived along with the man who is called Annuvil.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ardred leaned closed to the old hag and listened to her muttered words. It seemed she could no longer tell what was happening in the audience chamber of the Bozandari emperor. The hive had been attacked in some way, though she was not clear on the details.
He restrained an urge to hit her, so that if she was deceiving him in some way she would stop. He’d possessed her for too long, he reminded himself. She no longer resisted any whim or request of his. Long since had she learned the anguish resistance brought her.
She turned her wrinkled, skeletal face toward him, her eyes white with blindness. “I cannot learn anymore, my lord. The girl is unconscious. Izza has been freed and until one of the hive is allowed to approach him again, he will be useless.”
“And the rest?”
She closed those hideous, sightless eyes. “They are making a plan to enter the audience chamber. But they are not that many in number.”
“No.” No, that had been his doing. He had wanted key people in this particular hive, but not so many that they might be noticed. Other hives were larger, but they were intended for very different purposes, weakening the empire’s defenses in every direction by collecting larger and larger numbers of obedient members. But in the palace, a mere handful who truly claimed the emperor’s ear. Until now the plan had worked splendidly.
He sighed and tapped his toe impatiently. “Try harder. There must be something you can learn.”
“Aye, my lord.”
“Send for me if you do.”
“Aye, my lord.”
He strode from the room, and he did not see the faint, bitter smile cross the woman’s lips as she sat back in her padded chair and allowed sleep to come to her.
Sara watched as Tess, Cilla and Archer walked through the audience chamber toward her group and the emperor.
She was struck, suddenly by how different they looked. Archer, who had once been a weary-looking traveler who rarely cared to be noticed, who had always been soft-spoken, courteous and nearly invisible when he stopped at her father’s inn over the years, now strode with purpose and confidence that made him seem yet taller and more powerful. No one could ignore him now, or find him invisible.
And his sword, usually well hidden under his cloak, peeked out, its intricate, jeweled hilt visible to everyone. His companion quiver and bows were absent, however. He was no longer Archer, she realized with a jolt. This was Annuvil, the man who had paid a price beyond imagining for his failings, a man born to be a king.
Beside him, Cilla, too, seemed transformed. She had always borne herself proudly, but battle had affected her in some way that made her look older, sterner, less of the young woman Sara had first met in Anahar.
Sara supposed she herself had changed in just such ways, given the journey on which life had taken them since Whitewater. None of them was truly young anymore.
But then came Tess, and Sara not only noticed the change, she was shocked by it. The young, frightened woman who remembered nothing of her past, who had awakened amid the gore of a slaughtered caravan, had been more transformed than any of them. Why had she not noted the change before? Had she really been so self-absorbed, or absorbed in Tom? Or was it merely the venue that made her so aware now?
The blond-haired, blue-eyed woman garbed in perfect white entered the room with the Weaver’s sword hanging from a brown leather belt at her hip. The sword itself was in no way remarkable in appearance, but in Tess’s hand it had come to life far beyond the mere ability to slash and cut. Only once had she removed it from the plain leather scabbard, and that had been in battle. Those who had heard it sing in her hand, who had seen it flash with inner light, would never forget.
But now Tess herself shone with an inner light. Gone was the lost and frightened woman, replaced by an Ilduin who walked with confidence and head high into the presence of the most powerful man in the known world as if he were no more important than anyone else.
But, Sara thought with a catch in her own breath, had she not done the same thing herself earlier this day?
They had all been changed. All of them. When she felt Tom’s fingers against hers, she reached for them and held them.
The emperor faced the new arrivals, his face a mix of consternation, fear, anguish and controlled anger. He was not pleased with the things that had been said to him, that much was clear, yet he was the kind of man who would stand and take criticism. That alone marked him as well above average.
Alezzi hurried to make introductions. The emperor, for the moment, however, was only interested in Cilla and Tess. “Can you help my daughter?”
“She fought free of the hive,” Sara said quietly. “But I alone can do nothing to rouse her or heal her.”
Tess nodded and knelt beside the girl. With one hand she touched the smooth young forehead. “She has gone far away to hide from the hive.” She looked up at the emperor. “You daughter is strong. She will become a great Ilduin.”
“I only care that she survive this.”
Tess nodded. “So it is for all we love. Greater battles lie ahead of us, but at this moment none is greater than saving this child.”
She looked at the other two Ilduin. “Join me, sisters.”
They knelt with her, creating a circle around the girl, and linked hands.
Tess closed her eyes, reaching inward. Those watching saw nothing for a long time except three women kneeling around the emperor’s daughter, but then, slowly, a rainbow arced between the three of them and over the girl who lay between them.
It grew in brilliance, scintillating and sparkling in every color the eye could see. Then slowly it lowered until it touched Lozzi’s forehead.
An instant later a soft cry escaped the girl, then her eyes snapped open. At once the rainbow vanished.
“Can I?” the emperor asked, reaching for his daughter.
“She is well now,” Tess said. She rose and drew back to stand beside Archer and Alezzi. Cilla and Sara joined her. It seemed to those gathered around that Tess looked paler than when she had entered the room, but she still stood strong and straight.
The emperor h
ugged his daughter, tears running down his cheeks for a few minutes until the strength of his relief eased. Then he rose and faced the party, his cheeks unashamedly wet. “Thank you,” he said to the Ilduin.
As one they bowed to him.
“And you.” The emperor turned to look at Archer. “Should I bow to you?”
Archer shook his head. “No man need bow to me. I am here merely to serve my purpose.”
“I admit I am having trouble believing what I am told, that you are Annuvil, the Firstborn Son of the Firstborn King.”
A half smile curled Archer’s mouth. “You need not believe it. It matters not. All that matters is the threat this world faces from Ardred.”
“I have heard the old stories and prophecies,” Maluzza conceded, “and a seer warned at my birth that I should play a part in the prophecies, but I cannot understand why anyone at all would wish to do to this world what the young prophet here foresees. What would it profit him?”
“I do not know. I have never understood this part of him. I suspect we are but pawns in a game the gods play. But of this I know one thing for certain—this game will not end until he and I finish the business between us.”
“And that is what?”
“One of us must die.”
“And into this the entire world must be dragged?”
“So it seems. Ardred will have it no other way and never would. It was not enough to hate me and kill me. Instead he involved the entire race of Firstborn, first through building his own faction, then through causing my father to build one for me. Out of this came wars beyond imagining. You have seen the plain of Dederand? ’Twas there the last blow was struck in the war. You have seen league after league of black glass where nothing can grow. Not even that seems to have stopped him.”
The emperor frowned, trying to absorb the meaning of all this.
“And it is across that plain that we shall have to march to meet Ardred, for he is ensconced in the mountains near Earth’s Root.”
“’Tis a dangerous way to travel,” the emperor said. “’Tis slippery and there are many sharp places. We will lose men simply by crossing it.”
Archer nodded. “I believe that is what he intends. But I will go alone, if need be. I only wish I could guarantee your safety and the safety of the rest of the world if I face him alone. But I cannot. He builds hives, which will become armies. Only those who serve him will survive and prosper. Always has he been thus.”
“Then,” said the emperor, decision clearly made, “we must make plans. Together. For the sake of our people.”
Archer nodded. “For the sake of our people.”
“But first,” said Sara, “we must deal with the hive inside the palace, for if we do not, the Enemy will know every detail of every plan we make.”
“Then let us go, sisters,” Cilla said. “It is time to show the Enemy that we are not without teeth.”
Tess walked with her Ilduin sisters on each side. The news of their arrival had already spread through the palace and even Bozandari nobles seemed to flatten themselves to the walls as the women passed. She didn’t like being the object of fear. On the other hand, she made no effort to comfort the dread she saw in the eyes around her. If they wished to fear her, let them. Others had certainly quailed from these people often enough.
“You have been here longer than I,” Tess said to Sara. “Have you any idea where the hive is hidden?”
“We should go to Lozzi’s nanny,” Sara said. “The nanny is the girl’s primary caretaker. That was obvious from the emperor’s reaction. She will know who else the girl has seen regularly.”
“You do not think she is in the hive?” Cilla asked.
“We will soon find out,” Tess said, her eyes grim and determined. That someone could use a mere child in this way drew forth a wrath that burned in the pit of Tess’s belly. For the first time, she did not quail at the thought of meting out Ilduin justice. If ever there was a time for justice, that time was now.
Tess barked questions at palace guards and officials as they passed, seeking and gaining directions to Lozzi’s private chambers. If any of those she questioned had been reluctant to give her the information she sought, that had quickly given way under Tess’s fierce gaze.
Be not too led by anger, Cilla cautioned in thought.
If we cannot be angry at this, when would be the right time? Tess thought back. The Enemy was going to turn that beautiful girl into a burned-out Ilduin husk. His evil knows no bounds.
Then she walled off her mind. Something, some memory she could not reach, fueled her anger like an unseen but volatile gas. She did not attempt to plumb that memory. There would be time for that later. For now, she simply drew strength from it.
Lozzi’s nanny was a half-Anari woman named Nona. When she saw the three Ilduin enter, her dark eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed in caution.
“Where is Lozzi?” she asked.
“She is with her father,” Tess said. “You are her nanny, yes?”
Nona nodded. “And more her mother than the woman who birthed her. How is my child? If you have harmed her…”
“We have not,” Tess said. “We have freed her from the dark bonds that lay on her mind, and she is well. If you truly love her, you will accept my solemn promise of that, and help me find those who enslaved her. If you do not, I warn you, hope not for another sunrise. For your life will end this day, in this room.”
“I would never harm her!” Nona said. “Aye, she has changed these past months. But I thought it simply that she was entering womanhood, and later that she had heard of all that was happening in the city, and feared for me.”
Tess studied the woman. Her face was Anari, but her eyes were Bozandari. And while her face was as impassive as any Anari, her eyes shielded nothing. She was telling the truth.
Tess permitted the briefest smile on her lips. “I believe you, Nona. Now tell us, please, who else Lozzi had seen of late. For it is nigh certain that one of them had enslaved her mind.”
Nona drew a slow breath. “Please understand that I do not wish to accuse the innocent.”
That was a lie, Tess knew. “I need names.”
Nona shook her head. “If I were to give you ten names, not knowing which is the one you seek, what of the other nine? Do you think they will not know who gave you their names, who cast them into suspicion? Do you think they will forgive me that indiscretion? If so, then you know nothing of this palace or these people.”
“If it is your position and safety that concerns you,” Tess said, “consider the danger that I pose. I am here now, Nona.”
“If you are truly Ilduin, you would not harm an innocent,” the nanny said. “Not even to punish an evil. Not unless you yourself were possessed of the very evil you claim to fight.”
Tess fell silent. The woman had called her bluff, and it had indeed been a bluff. She was not going to torture this woman to get information. And in truth, she saw well why Nona was reluctant to talk. That she had also turned over the name of the guilty person would not matter to the innocent. And they would work their revenge on Nona, who would be helpless to prevent it.
“We will need Lozzi’s help,” Sara said, as if reading through the wall Tess had put around her thoughts. “Nona, Lozzi will be coming with us in the coming campaign. She will doubtless want you at her side, and we would want her in no other arms. So you will not be staying here at the palace, regardless. There is no need to fear retribution, for both you and Lozzi will be in our care.”
“You cannot protect me from her,” Nona said, shaking her head. “Not even Ilduin power is that strong.”
“Who?” Tess asked, stepping forward.
But Sara put a hand on Tess’s arm. “She doesn’t have to tell us, sister.”
“She must!” Tess said. “Someone tortured and used a young girl. They must pay for that atrocity!”
“No,” Sara said, her grip tightening. “Sister, she doesn’t have to tell us. For I already know.”
&nbs
p; “What?” Tess asked, looking at Sara.
Something in Sara’s eyes said let me in. Tess did, and in an instant, she knew Sara was right.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tess looked down at the captive Ilduin. She wondered how long the emperor’s mother had been enslaved. And, more important, by whom. She suspected she would never know the answer to the first question. But if experience was any guide, she would soon know the answer to the second.
Fetzza had once been a beautiful woman. That much was obvious. She had high, patrician cheekbones and green eyes that must have once fetched many a man’s gaze. Now she lay on a sumptuous bed, surrounded by every creature comfort a son such as hers could provide. Yet, Tess saw, she was hardly comfortable. And if ever she had known true happiness, those days had long passed.
“You cannot win,” Fetzza said, scorn in her eye. “My master is far stronger than you will ever know.”
“You are enslaved,” Tess said, trying to reconcile this woman’s behavior with what she had seen of Sara’s mother in Lorense. Surely Fetzza must be as innocent as Mara had been. “Your mind is hostage to evil, sister.”
“Sister?” The woman nearly spat out the word. “You are no sister of mine. I would not share blood with such…weakness!”
“Surely you recognize Ilduin kin,” Sara said.
Fetzza shook a bony finger at the three of them. “You are but pale shadows of what Ilduin should be! Afraid to claim your birthrights as daughters of the gods, and mothers of the world. For it was through us that the gods birthed all life! You were born to rule, and instead you cower behind kindness.”
“I cower not before you,” Cilla said, stepping forward. “I do not fear those who have been spoiled by power. And I will not fear those who have enslaved my own brothers and sisters.”
