by Sarah Hawke
“Maybe,” Larric replied. “Or I’m just better at baiting traps.”
Their bodies became a blur of motion, before my mind could process what was happening he managed to flip her around and slam her back against the wall. His hand had produced a second knife from somewhere, and the metal glinted in the dim light as he pressed it against her throat.
“Not bad,” Karethys said, her violet eyes flickering. “But with shadows this deep, I could escape whenever I wished.”
“I know,” he said. “But I’m betting you won’t.”
They stared at each other for a long moment, and my breath caught in my throat. There was nothing I could to help Larric if she attacked; my budding magic was no match for a vaeyn Shadow Knight. And the guards might not even listen to an avenari slave if I tried to summon them…
Then, without warning, Larric tossed his knife aside. He glared at Karethys for several more seconds…at which point he leaned forward and kissed her.
I had to blink twice before I believed what I was seeing. I had difficulty imagining Larric embracing anyone, let alone a dark elf…but this was a kiss of passion in every sense of the word. Her right hand gripped the back of her head and pulled him in closer while her left dropped to his waist and frantically tore open his trousers…
By the time I’d accepted what my eyes were showing me, Larric had slipped his hands beneath her leather skirt. Karethys leapt up into his arms and clamped her legs around his waist…and then sighed in delight as he thrust inside her. Her ruby lips curled into a smile as she locked her ankles together behind him, and soon he was pounding her against the wall so hard one of the nearby paintings fell off its hooks.
Deep down, I knew I should have backed away and returned to my bed. The longer I stayed and watched, the greater the chance I would be discovered. I had no idea how Larric would react if he spotted me. His relationship with this woman was obviously a secret. Master Kristoff never would have hired a bodyguard who had a vaeyn lover. Fraternizing with a dark elf was more than just treason—it was sacrilege against the will of the Covenant.
But no matter how much I told myself to walk away, I couldn’t. My body was frozen, not in terror but in wonder. A human and an elf embracing out of passion rather than dominance…
After a few more moments of intense pounding, Larric clenched his teeth and growled as he spent inside her. They shared a long, breathless kiss before he pulled her off the wall and relaxed his grip on her thighs. Karethys didn’t relent, however; she kept her legs locked around his back as firmly as a vise, and when their lips finally parted I could feel the Aether coiling around her. Their bodies vanished in a writhing cloud of shadows…and then they were suddenly lying atop his bed a few yards away.
“Darkstone will have men stationed nearby,” Larric warned between gasps. “If they discover you here—”
“I’ve taken precautions,” Karethys interrupted, roughly pushing him down on his back. “You’ll need a better excuse than that if you want time to recover.”
He smiled up at her. The expression was so strange, so unexpected, that my breath actually caught in my throat. It was almost like I was looking at a completely different man than the one I had known for the last few years. Larric Aresi rarely showed emotion of any kind, but this…this was a genuine smile filled with warmth and compassion.
He reached up and helped her remove the straps of her breastplate. It took several minutes of work interspersed with deep kisses, but eventually the floor was littered with armor plates and undergarments. After a bit of light coaxing from her tongue, his cock swelled upright again…at which point she swung her leg over his waist and mounted him.
Even bathed in the dim light, Karethys was, without a doubt, the most exotic woman I had ever seen. Her statuesque figure was the perfect embodiment of feminine power: lithe but powerful, muscular but sleek. Her grey-blue skin contrasted starkly with her vibrant violet eyes, and the right side of her body was covered with elaborate, faintly glowing tattoos designed to ward off demonic possession. Watching her back flex and arch was almost memorizing. I had never imagined an elf wielding such control and power before…
I was used to watching men take their partners roughly. I was used to the desperate thrusting and breathless exultations. I was used to them doing whatever was necessary to bring themselves pleasure. But this…this was different. I had so rarely witnessed sex between equals. It was enthralling. It was glorious.
Eventually Karethys bucked atop him as she climaxed, and mere moments later Larric groaned as he spilled deep inside her a second time. Once her glowing eyes finally reopened, she smiled as she leaned down and brought their lips together. They kissed passionately, hungrily, and I began to wonder if they would release before morning. But eventually she pulled away and dragged her fingernails across his bare chest.
“Right where we left off,” Karethys whispered. “I was worried that all your time as a house guardsman would make you fat.”
Larric snorted and clenched his hands around her taught waist. “I was worried that all your time on the front lines would make you even more of a bitch.”
“We both know that’s not possible.”
Larric smiled. I almost couldn’t believe it at first—I had never seen such a radiant glow on his face before. He looked like a completely different person…
“Vaeyn women know we want, and we aren’t afraid to take it,” Karethys told him with a wry grin. “I know that’s intimidating to you Imperial boys…”
His hands squeezed more tightly around her waist as he tackled her onto the mattress. I wondered if he might take her for a third time, but apparently even a former Inquisitor’s endurance had limits. Instead they spent the next several minutes locked in a passionate embrace.
“I missed you,” Larric whispered. The softness of his tone was as unrecognizable as the warmth on his face. “When you stopped returning my letters after the fall of Stormcrest, I wondered if something had gone wrong…”
“I’ve been…occupied,” Karethys replied. “Once I confirmed that our plan had worked and you survived the attack, I knew you’d be cooped in Sanctum for a while anyway. And we agreed earlier that you wanted time to see how Kristoff reacted so we plan accordingly.”
“I needed a few weeks, not the better part of a year,” Larric said, leaning backwards and gently pushing her legs down. “You don’t know what it’s like living on the inside.”
“You mean being surrounded by wealth and decadence? Having your whims catered to by an army of helpless elves?”
“That’s not fair and you know it,” he told her. His smile vanished, and the cold, humorless Larric I was used to returned. “Every day, I’m one misstep away from execution. And maintaining my cover requires certain…compromises.”
“Like whoring Kristoff’s top slave around Sanctum? How often does the girl share your bed, I wonder?”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about. Elara is…” He swallowed and shook his head. “She’s not what you think.”
The vaeyn’s eyes narrowed. “Explain.”
“You first,” Larric said. “You could have warned me that you’d be here. You could have told me what you were planning.”
Karethys sighed and crawled out from beneath him. “You’re right. I’m sorry, I just…” She paused for a moment and seemed to compose herself. “Seeing you with an elf slave on your arm makes me sick, but I know that’s not fair to you. You have to do what’s necessary to survive.”
They sat together in silence, and it was all I could do to remain quiet. The fact that Larric was friends with a vaeyn Shadow Knight was strange enough; the fact that he was lovers with a vaeyn Shadow Knight was almost unbelievable. But the more they spoke, the more lost I became. Who was he, really? Was he even loyal to Master Kristoff? Was his entire position as a bodyguard some kind of ruse? A thousand potential explanations looped through my mind, but I forced myself to ignore them and remain focused. What had started out as seemingly harmles
s voyeurism had suddenly transformed into accidental espionage.
Part of me wanted to race back to my bed and bury my head beneath my sheets. The more I learned here, the harder it would be for me to conceal the knowledge from Larric. And I didn’t know how he would respond if he knew I’d learned his secrets. The less I knew about any of this, the better.
But it was already too late to walk away, and deep down I realized that. I had already done more than dip my toe in the water; I had plunged in head-first. My only hope was to learn the truth—the full truth—so I could return to Master Kristoff and tell him everything.
“I knew that reconnecting would be difficult,” Karethys said eventually. “But the time has finally come for us to take action. I just need to know why you agreed to come here.”
“Duke Kristoff insisted,” Larric told her. “There’s nothing more to it.”
“And what does he want?”
“Exactly what I told Darkstone: Kristoff and the Quorum need Korvale’s soldiers. They can’t depose the Emperor without support.”
Karethys nodded and pulled her knees close to her chin. “So the plan worked. The Empire is finally ready for civil war…”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Larric warned. “The other Dukes won’t waggle a finger if we can’t get everyone on board. Lucian is still powerful, despite his missteps.”
“I assumed as much, which was why I couldn’t say ‘no’ when one of Darkstone’s agents approached me during the winter. I knew we couldn’t afford to pass up this opportunity to stoke the fire.”
“You do realize he’s full of shit, I hope.”
“I’m not a fool, Larric. Darkstone may hate the Emperor and the Covenant, but he couldn’t care less about my people or the faeyn. He just doesn’t want an army of Shadow Knights marching over the Salt Peaks and razing his cities.”
Larric sighed and cross his arms. “You still haven’t told me why you’re even here. What deal are you really trying to make? What the hell is going on?”
“I’ve been mostly honest,” Karethys told him. “I told Darkstone that we’d need concessions to stop the fighting, and that’s true—we have our own bloodthirsty political factions who see this war as the perfect opportunity to stamp out the Covenant once and for all. But the reality is that the Empire still outnumbers us twenty-to-one. The Legion is fat and lazy from years of peace, but that will change soon enough.”
She sighed a brushed a loose strand of silver-white hair from her eyes. “Darkstone wants chaos in the Covenant so that he can depose the Hierophant with one of her weaker, more malleable prelates. We want that too—we’re just planning to spread the chaos a bit farther. Division in Covenant, division in the Quorum…civil war is the only chance for my people to survive.”
Larric’s eyes narrowed. “There’s more to it than just sowing chaos,” he said after a moment of silence. “Your people were ready for this. No one expected Glorinfel to fall so quickly, not even me—and I knew what was coming.”
“Unlike impatient humans, we have the capacity to plan ahead,” Karethys replied with a wry smile.
“That’s not going to work. You can’t distract me that easily.”
“You’re sure?” she asked, sliding an arm under the sheets next to him. I couldn’t see exactly what was happening from this angle, but by the way he reacted it wasn’t difficult to guess. “It’s still early—”
“I’m serious,” he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her arm aside. “If you want my help, you need to tell me what’s really going on.”
Karethys stared at him for a few seconds before she finally released a long sigh. “I located a new ally in Sanctum. Someone with resources and connections beyond anything we could have hoped for. His people infiltrated the Legion, sabotaged outposts, bribed minor nobles…by the time he was finished, Glorinfel was a sandcastle just waiting to be washed away.”
“I see,” Larric whispered, frowning. “Vaeyn spies could never act so openly, and the Faedari rebels don’t have enough influence or leverage to pull off something on that scale. So who is this person? A nobleman? Another Inquisitor?”
“It might still be dangerous for you to know his identity. If Kristoff or the Covenant forces you to talk—”
“They won’t,” Larric assured her. “And I can’t help here if I don’t know the truth. We need to work together here, or neither of us will make it out of Korvale alive.”
“You overestimate Darkstone,” she muttered. “But you’re right, you deserve to know. The trouble is, I don’t think you’ll believe me if I tell you.”
“Try.”
Karethys hugged her knees a second time. “Emperor Lucian.”
I inhaled so sharply that I would have been spotted instantly if Larric hadn’t done the same. “You can’t be serious.”
“I warned you,” she said, smiling faintly. “It sounds crazy, I know. But he’s not the man you think he is. He’s not the man anyone thinks he is.”
Larric rubbed a hand across his mouth. I could feel his mind churning through the possibilities without even trying. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Karethys sighed and seemed to brace herself. “He’s Unbound.”
This time, the color completely drained from Larric’s face. I thought he might actually fall over; I certainly would have, if I weren’t already crouched on the floor.
“That’s impossible,” he said eventually. “The Covenant would never allow it.”
“The Covenant is clueless, obviously,” Karethys told him. “Their ‘tests’ to reveal Unbound are nonsense—you know this first-hand. The only people they identity as Unbound are political rivals or other dissidents the Hierophant wants out of her way.”
Larric passed across the room for at least a minute before he finally sat back down at the edge of the bed. “You’re saying the ‘living god’ of the Covenant is a heretic. Do you have any idea what that means? If the people found out…”
“The Covenant’s moral and political authority would evaporate like morning dew. The Quorum would turn against them, and so would every noble family in the Empire.”
“It would be worse than that,” Larric murmured. “The prelates and their priests have been demonizing the Unbound since the dawn of the Empire. Sanctum would burn. The people would riot and try to tear down the city.”
“A secret of that magnitude is both a curse and a weapon,” Karethys said. “Lucian knows this…and he plans to use it.”
Larric sighed and shook his head. “You’re going to have to start at the beginning. How in the hell did you even contact the Emperor? How do you know any of this?”
She leaned back onto the pillows and folded her hands in her lap. “You’re aware of the rumors surrounding his ascension.”
“That had his father killed? Of course.”
“Not just that,” Karethys said. “I mean the specifics.”
“Some of the nobles believe Emperor Rikus was poisoned. The Covenant priests seem to think he was killed with magic. And of course there’s the rumor than Lucian hired a vaeyn assassin to…” Larric’s eyes narrowed. “Please tell me that you didn’t kill him.”
“I didn’t,” Karethys assured him. “You really think I would have kept something like that from you?”
“Considering what else you’ve revealed tonight, yes,” Larric replied with a grunt. “So what actually happened to Rikus?”
“Lucian did hire one of my people, but not someone in the service of the Matriarch. I don’t even know her real name.”
“A mercenary, then?”
“Not exactly. Apparently she was a member of the Adorei Kel.”
Larric hissed between his teeth. I had heard the name before, but all I knew for certain was that the Kel were an old and reviled cabal of vaeyn warlocks. According to the Covenant, they were fond of summoning and enslaving demons …but the Covenant said that about all dark elves, so I had no idea what was true and what was hyperbole.
“For once, it’s actually po
ssible that all the rumors are true,” Karethys went on with a wry smile. “A vaeyn did assassinate Emperor Rikus, and she probably used poison and dark magic in the process. I wouldn’t be surprised of Lucian has nurtured some of the rumors.”
“But why?” Larric asked. “An heir killing his father to steal the throne is hardly new, but usually the heir tries to hide his involvement. Why would Lucian want people to know? The Dukes and the Court already despise him.”
“Exactly. For once, this isn’t about power—this about destroying the Empire from within.”
Larric rubbed at his face again. “This is insane. It doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.”
Karethys reached out and touched his arm. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but there’s more. You need to hear it.”
“I’m listening,” he rasped.
“I wasn’t in contact with Lucian until just a few weeks before the attack on Stormcrest,” she explained. “Or at least, I didn’t know specifically until who I was working until then. We had been receiving information from someone in Sanctum for a long time, but he kept his identity a secret. Once I learned the truth, everything changed.”
She took a deep breath and scooted up next to him. “The bottom line is that Lucian is Unbound. I don’t know how he learned what he was or if he’s spent much time refining his abilities, but they’re real. He believes the Covenant is the source of almost all the Empire’s evils, and he wants to destroy it.”
“Which I suppose makes sense, given than they’d burn him alive if they ever learned the truth,” Larric murmured. “But do you trust him?”
“As much as I trust anyone.”
“So ‘no,’ then.”
Karethys smiled thinly. “I trust what he’s done for us so far. The victories we’ve had in this war wouldn’t have been possible without his help. And I can’t see any other endgame for him if he’s just deceiving us.”
Larric pursed his lips. “The Faedari don’t know anything about this. I’ve been in contact with several other cell leaders, and they still consider Lucian their mortal enemy.”
