“Lady and Lord Esquire,” she spat out through gritted teeth.
Natalya ran a finger down the list, searching for the name. “Ah-hah,” she said after a moment, “here you are. Serving your sentence for possession of a book on blood-magic and ties to the Order.”
“This isn’t how it was supposed to be,” whined the man from behind her, “I don’t belong here.”
“Shut up,” his wife snapped at him, “This is all your fault.”
“Don’t worry,” Jeremy told him, spinning the man around so he could place irons around his wrists, “we’ll get you back where you belong.”
CHAPTER 2
“Please tell me you are joking,” Layna implored her aide.
“I’m afraid not, Your Majesty; all of the Council members’ households have sent messages that they are unable to travel.”
“This can’t be a coincidence,” she sighed and rubbed her eyes. It seemed she was doing more cleaning up after Telvani’s messes, and less what she needed to be doing to rebuild the people’s confidence in her reign. “Where is Gryffon?”
“The King is in the library, My Liege,” he answered and correctly assumed that was a dismissal. He bowed and left her to her thoughts. All six members of the Council were too busy to answer a summons? That was extremely unlikely, even given the circumstances under which she was calling them together. The latest sessions had all been far too compliant to Lord Telvani’s wishes. Even the meetings they’d had since Telvani escaped had been far too subdued and none of the members had been able to offer any suggestions on what to do. This was very unusual, and she and Gryffon were suspicious that Telvani had somehow found a way to influence each of them.
They had found no evidence of blackmail or subversion so far, but the fact that all of them supposedly couldn’t get to the palace – all at the same time – only further proved to her that there was something amiss.
She strode through the castle purposefully, almost unaware of the many feet that were constantly behind her. Almost, but not entirely. She had grown much more accustomed to the constant barrage of guards, aides, and maids who followed her every movement, but it was tiresome.
Gryffon was sitting at the center table poring over documents. He squinted at them, from hours of focusing too closely, and she felt for him. Both their lives had been turned upside-down the moment that she had been recognized as the heir for the kingdom. The hunts he used to be able to take alone, now came with an entourage of guardsmen. Layna had spent no few nights listening to him complaining about how much harder it was to be silent in the woods with ten men following behind you. And armored men make quite a racket.
“Gryffon,” she interrupted his work, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder.
He looked up at her gratefully, obviously glad to have been given an excuse to stop. “My love,” he greeted her, standing to give her a quick kiss.
The touch still sent shivers through her, and she watched the people around them out of the corner of her eye. They were all pointedly looking elsewhere for their privacy.
“We may have another problem,” she told him regretfully. “None of the Council members are able to come to the palace. I’m afraid it may not be as simple as we first thought.”
“Not as simple as Telvani having somehow finding a way to convince all the Council members to agree with him on every subject?” he said sarcastically, but then immediately scrunched up his face and apologized. “Sorry, I just feel like we’ve had nothing but one problem after another. Why did you have to go and be the Queen?” He sighed with exaggerated exasperation.
Layna gave him her best mad face, but couldn’t hold it for long before it transformed into a smile. He always had that effect on her. She leaned forward and kissed him instead. “Come on, let’s go spend some time with Phoenix while we discuss our options.” She took him by the hand, and led their now twice-as-big entourage to the nursery.
Amelia was sitting in the corner in a rocking chair, a wet towel draped over her forehead.
“Are you unwell?” Layna asked, concerned, as they entered the room, thankfully leaving the rest of the party in the hallway.
The older woman removed the cloth and gave her a weak smile. “Oh, I’m fine, just a bit of a headache.”
“And how is Miss Phoenix today?” Layna asked, her voice rising to the pitch that she had always gotten amusement out of adults seeming to think babies responded to better – until she had one of her own. Gryffon beat her to the child, sweeping her up into his arms.
“Giving poor Amelia a headache, are we?” he jokingly admonished. Phoenix smiled at them and reached for Gryffon’s crown. He humored her by tilting his head so that she could get her chubby hand around one of the jewels. She grabbed it and pulled the whole thing neatly off his head, much to his surprise, and Layna laughed at the look on his face.
By unspoken agreement, neither immediately brought up the subject that they had come here to discuss, allowing some of their stress to melt away in the presence of their daughter.
Eventually, however, it could not be ignored any longer. “We received messages from each of the Council members’ households,” she told him, “that none of them can make it for one reason or another.”
“Excuses by the members themselves or from their staff I wonder?”
“Hard to say, but it stands to reason that whatever Telvani was holding over their heads is still in place. And may be getting worse. He obviously planned this well.”
“How did we allow our entire Council to be subverted? I thought that when we got rid of the old politics and placed people at Amelia’s suggestion that this sort of thing wouldn’t happen.”
“Now wait just a moment,” Amelia chimed in, and Layna smiled despite the situation. Amelia was one of the only people who still spoke to them as though they were just people and she found it refreshing. “It wasn’t my suggestions that caused this. These are all good people and not one of them is going to be turned by bribes or other such nonsense. Maybe if he was holding their whole family hostage or something, but how would he have done that?”
“What if he was threatening their loved ones with some new disease he came up with?” Layna suggested, thinking back to Lord Telvani himself, currently wasting away in the dungeon.
“Or threatened to turn one of those creatures loose on them,” Gryffon said, not taking his eyes from Phoenix whose nose he was tapping. Layna tried to imagine someone threatening Phoenix with such a monster and shuddered.
“But that would mean we haven’t done a very good job,” Layna pointed out.
“What do you mean?” Amelia asked, perplexed.
“In eradicating his supporters. If he still has enough influence to hold threats over all six Council members….” She paused and tipped her head towards the dungeons. “He’s obviously not in a position to be the one carrying out his plans at the moment.”
Gryffon looked up at her and they locked eyes for a moment. Finally he spoke, “Perhaps it’s time that we go pay some of the Council members a visit.”
Layna nodded and they regretfully left Phoenix with Amelia, telling their aides that they would be leaving the palace. In short order the royal carriage was prepared, and they were on their way. Layna supposed that this particular convenience was worth the inconvenience of always having someone around; when they needed something done, it was done instantly.
Though she tried her best to be polite and courteous to all the staff, it was sometimes difficult to both ignore their presence for the semblance of privacy for her sanity, while also treating them accordingly respectful when she needed something. She was half-tempted to magic her way into the servant quarters some night to see what they said about her behind her back, but seeing as how that would be a horrible invasion of their privacy, she resisted the urge. Barely.
The carriage ride to the first manor was a short one, as the lord had already lived in the city when they had asked him to become one of the Council members. When they arrived, the st
aff looked harried, and they quickly ushered them into the sitting room. It wasn’t often that the King and Queen made house calls - at least it hadn’t been before Layna and Gryffon had become monarchs - and the servants were beside themselves deciding how to react. Layna tried to calm them the best she could, assuring them that all they needed was to speak with the lord of the house.
After a few minutes, it was the lady that arrived, greeting them nervously. “Your Majesties, what an unexpected surprise!”
“Yes,” Gryffon said dryly, “We got a message that Lord Walcott could not make it to the palace, so we came to him.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you,” Lady Walcott replied, but her darting eyes revealed that her true emotions were nowhere near what these words conveyed. “But I’m afraid my husband is not well and cannot be receiving visitors.”
“We really must insist,” Layna persisted.
The lady looked ready to argue further until Gryffon put on his Kingly tone and added, “He will see his King and Queen.”
She deflated and stood from the chair she had been sitting on the edge of across from them. Bowing deeply, she straightened and led the way out of the room. “I must warn you, Majesties, that he hasn’t quite been himself lately…”
She stepped lightly through the manor hallways before coming to a stop in front of what must be the lord’s bedchamber. Two guards stood stationed outside, and both regarded the lady with a look of worry at their appearance. The lady shook her head at them almost imperceptibly, as though in defeat, and they moved aside.
As the door opened, the reason for their reluctance became clear. Lord Walcott, once a proud and well-kept man, was sitting beside the window muttering to himself. His facial hair was grown in to an uneven stubble with bits of food still attached to it. His clothing was rumpled and dirty, as though it had been unchanged for days, and his hair clung to his head with filth.
Layna raised an eyebrow. “How long has he been like this?” she asked softly, moving slowly towards the man. Her guards closed in protectively.
Lord Walcott glanced up at her approach and he shouted something nonsensical at her, waving his arms wildly around.
“It came on slowly,” Lady Walcott reported, seeming to be relieved at finally being able to share the burden with someone, “maybe a few weeks, it’s hard to say. It started out that he would start to say something and then cut himself off to spout some nonsense about a new plan Telvani had come up with. Normally he’d naysay many of them immediately, but for some reason he was agreeing with the vile man, so I became worried. I tried talking to him about it, but he just kept telling me that he’d realized that Telvani actually did have some good ideas. Then, after you got better and Telvani escaped, he started to become forgetful and very unlike himself. It eventually progressed into this.” She waved a hand at her husband, worry creasing her brow.
“Is he lucid at all?” Gryffon asked, kneeling next to the man and laying a hand on his forehead. Layna caught a subtle look he gave her and came to stand beside him. She linked her power to his and immediately felt the probe he had sent into the lord’s mind.
Something was definitely not right.
“There are brief moments when he knows who he is and where he is, but they are becoming fewer. I’ve had the house mages working feverishly to find out what’s wrong with him,” she seemed to suddenly remember that she had made false excuses in order to keep the situation from them, and she hastily explained. “I wanted to either fix it, or at least figure out what it was before we contacted you about it. I know you have a lot of other things to deal with right now.”
Layna half-listened to the ramblings of the woman while following Gryffon’s magic through the man. There was a dark spot in his mind which seemed to be pulling his sanity into it, like a black hole. But the origin of the spot was elusive. They pulled out.
- Telvani? – she mind-spoke to Gryffon, a talent they had discovered they could achieve together after the binding of their magic while fighting Nuko.
- I would say so, but how did he accomplish it? It’s like no other mind-spell I’ve ever seen. The closest I can think of is the collar that the Order was using to control people, but there’s no sign of a physical link. –
“We’ll send someone over to look at him,” Layna promised the distressed lady out loud, and exchanged a look with Gryffon.
Once back in the carriage, they made their way to the next Council member in somber silence. Their fears were confirmed as one after another they made the rounds to all the Council members within a reasonable distance, and one after another found similar situations. Two of them lived too far away to warrant a visit that day, but messengers were sent with explicit instructions to report the true reason for the Counselor’s absence.
The pair finally returned to the palace exhausted and discouraged. It appeared as though the entire Council was out of commission for the moment. Layna and Gryffon would have to handle things on their own.
*
Katya drifted in and out of consciousness. She groggily awoke to find broth being poured down her throat, but she was out again before it reached her stomach.
Voices sounded somewhere near her, but she couldn’t understand them, and soon the effort of trying to listen exhausted her, and she faded back into sleep.
Finally she woke with her senses returned, her mind clearing. She groaned and looked around, searching for Hunter. He was lying sprawled out next to her, and she rushed to his side. She regretted the sudden movement instantly as pain shot through her head, but was rewarded at Hunter’s own moan of pain when she touched his shoulder. He was alive.
“Are you alright?” she whispered, hastily searching their surroundings. They were all-too-familiar. It appeared to be the very same cell she had just broken out of, though meticulously repaired. Curses.
“I think so,” Hunter answered, prodding at his head. He stood carefully and started running his hands over the walls methodically.
“It’s no use,” Katya informed him. She moved towards the window and stood as close to the wall as possible so as to see out the edge. She could see several people rushing around hurriedly. Something was up.
“How long do you think we’ve been here?” Hunter asked, finally abandoning his futile search of the cell walls.
“I don’t know,” Katya answered regretfully, “my last clear memory is of Gareth breaking me out of here.” The thought of her father made her eyes water. She had gained much more control over her emotions since having her collar removed, but though the emotion was not all-consuming as it may previously had been, it didn’t hurt any less when she thought about his death. She cleared her throat and continued, oblivious to the tear streaming down her cheek. “Then I ran into you and we ran through the forest,”
“We made camp for the night,” Hunter added.
“And then something attacked us.”
“Apparently the tribe.”
“Well, this isn’t good.”
Footsteps drew near and Katya glared at the familiar face approaching.
“On your feet,” Slade commanded them and the bonds on the cell forced them into standing positions.
“Slade, why are you doing this?”
“What do you mean, why am I doing this?” he growled at her, “You’re the one who came in here and lied to us – and stole from us – after we took you into our homes and trusted you.”
“You never trusted me,” she snarled, countering his claims, “you used me. And I didn’t steal the Bloodstone, it was never yours to claim in the first place.”
“Shut up,” he snapped, and shoved her forward.
Hunter moved towards him menacingly, but Katya held up a hand and whispered, “Not worth it.”
The two of them were led before the Elders assembled in the Chamber. The woman with the braid, whose name Katya could never remember, moved forward to speak.
“Katya of no tribe,” she addressed her with the tribe’s equivalent of berating a noble with lack
of title, “you have been found guilty of your crimes and sentenced accordingly.”
“And what are her crimes, exactly?” Hunter pushed past his two guards to demand.
The woman paused to turn to him. “I will deal with you in a moment, Lost One. Silence.” She waved a hand towards him and his mouth involuntarily clamped shut.
He glared at her with daggers in his eyes, and tried to shrug off the guards who were now gripping his arms firmly, but to no avail.
She turned back to Katya as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “The penalty for your crimes is death.”
Hunter strained against the guards, his eyes growing wide. Katya didn’t bat an eye, but continued to watch the woman.
After a pregnant pause, she continued, “However, we have decided to give you a chance to redeem yourself and earn both your own and your friend’s freedom.” When Katya still didn’t respond she went on, “You will find and bring back a specific artifact from the Dena’ina tribe for us.”
“And if I refuse?” Katya finally spoke up.
“Then you both die.”
Katya glanced at Hunter, sure to keep any emotion from showing. “How do you know I won’t just never come back?”
“Because then your friend here will pay for your forfeit with his life. And then we’ll find you, and kill you too.” The woman’s tone was threatening.
Only Katya’s years of training allowed her to maintain a neutral expression. “What makes you think I care about him?” she bluffed.
The woman just gave her a smug smile. Did I say something in my delirious state? She had no idea, but the confidence of the woman unnerved her. Katya was certain that she would fulfill her threat if provoked, and she abandoned any thoughts of bluffing.
“If I bring you this item, you will release us?”
“Yes.”
Katya did not believe the conniving woman for an instant, but letting her think she was cowed into going along with what they wanted was important. Once she was out of their clutches she could come up with a plan.
Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) Page 3
