by A J Gala
“Who is she?” Rori raised a brow.
“A visitor for Rhett,” Ravina answered. “Queen’s orders. The visitor knows better than to let a dangerous daemonologist free, isn’t that right, Sinisia?”
“Yes,” she hissed. “Trust me, he will stay where he is. I just have to… have to ask him something. That’s all.”
Ravina took her down into the cells. Sinisia’s stomach fell when she saw Peyrs—she barely remembered him, but it meant Allanis knew more about the incident with the Hunters and Mother Tryphaena than she thought.
“Down there,” Ravina pointed. “At the end. He’s unwell, so be careful.”
Sinisia mumbled as she walked down the corridor. “What do you mean unwell?”
He sat slumped over against the bars, running his head back and forth on them with one thunk after another. He saw her out of the corner of his eye and laughed.
“Am I seeing things? What’s the little High Elf bitch doing here?”
“Jackass.” She sat across from him, taking note of the dirt and sweat on his face and the bags under his eyes. “What the hell is the matter with you?”
He kept laughing, but nothing was funny. “The ghost of my mother sold my soul to a daemon. My own mother! What a story that will make.”
“After hearing all your sad, pathetic mother issues, I’m surprised it’s not a dream come true.” She watched him fall and roll onto his side, still laughing, and she couldn’t help but picture him as she’d once seen him, without his clothes on. She cleared her throat. “Snap out of it, you lunatic.”
“What are you doing here?” His laughter eventually died, and he wiped away a tear. “How is your head still attached to your shoulders?”
“At this point? Luck.” It was due to run out, that much she knew. “I’m glad you’re not dead, you asshole. I thought your sister would have you killed. Anavelia would have done it to her brother without hesitation. But, good for Ashbel, he’s just a brat, not a daemonologist conspiring with the enemy.”
Rhett swept his arms out to an imaginary audience. “What are enemies, and what are friends? Fuck them all.”
She sighed, and her scowl folded into a frown. A second later, it was more of a pout. “I mean it,” she said. “I’m glad you’re not dead.” Though she wasn’t entirely sure why. Their exchange of business had been much more pleasant than she’d bargained for, but that was beside the point. He was cruel and heartless, and for all he boasted about the big picture, he couldn’t seem to see any of it himself.
But back in the Lion Suite, he had exposed so much more than his glorious body to her. He’d been vulnerable. For just a second. For just a second, he hadn’t been filled to the brim with hate and venom. His steel blue eyes had shown her pain.
If not for that, she could have accepted that he was beyond change.
His eyes regarded her again, still as wounded as they had been for that split second in the Lion Suite.
“Betrayal,” she whispered. “Right?”
He rolled away. “It could have been anyone but her.” Then he laughed, but it was cold and sharp. “It was. It had been everyone but her. The only family I had left. I thought surely if my mother were alive, she would be the one to have my back. I was wrong.”
She leaned against the bars, searching for a glimpse of his face. “Then what does that make you?”
He mumbled into the dirt. “I suppose it makes me wrong about everything. I feel like I have nothing now. She took away everything I believed in.”
He sat up and leaned against the bars, brushing dirt off his arms. She crept close and kissed him.
He would have done anything to be back at The Clarinet with her. “Where will you go?” he asked.
“I don’t know. This is probably the last time we will see each other. It was interesting to have known you, Rhett Hallenar.”
Vayven 23, 1144
Oksana didn’t know what time it was when she left her bed and scrambled through the Marble Palace. She must have looked crazy, and she didn’t care. She couldn’t sleep. She hadn’t slept well since hearing the news that Orin and Anavelia would be wed, but that very moment was the worst it had been as her thoughts got away from her. The anxiety had a ferocious hold, and she couldn’t quiet her mind.
Her study was close to her quarters, and she locked herself inside and lit as many candles as she could find. She took deep breaths as she hunched over a messy countertop strewn with open books. The breaths did nothing but make her dizzy.
“I should be happy for him. This is what he wanted. This was his goal.” She banged her fist on the countertop. “I never thought he could do it. My plan is better. My plan will work, but he has to come home…”
She broke away and went to her bookshelf. Four feet wide and to the ceiling, it looked impossible to move, yet she slid it aside with ease, revealing a hidden room. It was cramped with barely enough room for her to stand in. Shelves lined the walls with jars of powders and gems and inks. Another shelf held a row of beautiful duskstone fountain pens with crystal nibs. Their holders were labeled with names in a code of symbols. A slender podium with a half roll of paper waited for her.
She took a fountain pen from the end and a purple glass bottle of ink. She whispered to the pen, and the duskstone in it hummed and lit up with a faint lavender glow. A thin ribbon of red swirled inside. Blood.
Had she not been a duchess, she would have studied to become the most fearsome Whisper Mage east of the Undina Loch. She didn’t think she was far from it as she was, though.
She dipped the nib in the ink and took pen to paper.
Orin,
Please reconsider your marriage to Anavelia. I know you seek to be a king, but I do not think this union is wise. Take it from me, I’ve had four wives in my lifetime! Anavelia is not trustworthy, and I fear what will become of us and our work together.
Perhaps it is time to return to your home in Davrkton. I believe what we aim to accomplish can still be done from there.
-Mabus
She took down a jar of shimmering powder and sprinkled it over the fresh ink. It slithered across the paper until it had formed new words in Oksana’s handwriting. The new letter was nonsense and would prompt Orin to perform the Whisper Magic to reveal the original.
Oksana let the ink dry and sealed the letter with her white wax and doe seal and sent it off on the dark gray pigeon she always used to deliver her letters from “Mabus.”
She intended to execute her plan, but that meant it was no longer safe for Orin to remain in Saunterton. She sighed into her hands.
“Come home, you idiot.”
Lora brought breakfast into the Council room and sat with Allanis and Athen. There was no one else in the room with them. Lora glanced at Athen, and they exchanged a nod.
“Little Bird.” She pulled her chair in closer to Allanis’s left and started picking apart an apple spice cake. “We have some things we’d like to discuss with you.”
Allanis sipped on a cup of tea. “Without the others?”
“Without the others,” Athen confirmed. “We wanted to talk about them with you before the others muddied everything up.”
The queen sighed. “What I wouldn’t give to just go back to throwing parties.”
Lora smiled, but drummed her fingertips on the table, wondering how to start. “Did you hear about the mirror in Tizzy’s room yet?” she asked. “Adeska says Rori broke it. It’s been cleaned up, but you should be made aware.”
“What was Rori doing in Tizzy’s room, anyway?” Allanis stared at her plate, not realizing the way Athen poured his attention into his own food. “That mirror was special. I can’t believe she’d be so careless and break it.”
Athen’s reflection stared up at him from his tea. Adeska had made it very clear that they were not yet ready to come clean about the visions and how they were tied to the mirror. He hated all the secrets, but for once, he had to agree that they should wait for more information before telling the rest of the family. Mar
iette’s screams and cries haunted him.
“Uh—” he broke his gaze from the tea, “—something is off with Rhett too.” He managed to find Lora and Allanis’s faces as his mind caught up to the present. “Not that I care. But everyone says he’s acting strange and that he looks sick.”
“Madame Blanche doesn’t even want to go down into the cells anymore,” Lora said. “She said it gives her shivers and makes her nauseous. That would be Rhett, I’m sure.”
“Great.” Allanis rubbed her face. “Lazarus and I will take turns going down there, I suppose. Madame Blanche needs a break anyway.”
“We all do.” Lora put her hand on the queen’s. “The last thing we need to talk to you about, Little Bird, is the fate of Mister Aldridge.”
Peyrs had been down in the cells for five days now, Allanis recalled. She considered having him transferred to the jail in town, then shook her head.
“He knows too much.”
“So what will you do?” Lora asked. “You cannot allow him outside again with all that he knows. Think of everyone who will find out!”
“I know, Lora. I know what I’m going to do about him. In the meantime, I’ll need you two to do damage control. I’m not sure how to tell Ravina, though. I’m afraid she’ll leave. And think of everything she knows!”
Athen slowly chewed his food through the silence that overcame the table. It was heavy, and he knew Allanis and Lora shared knowledge without him. He swallowed hard.
“Damage control? What are you going to do?” he asked.
“Don’t worry about it yet. Just act normal, Athen.”
He wanted to leave. The silence was uncomfortable, and no topic seemed appropriate to break it. But he imagined the suspicious look Allanis would give him if he excused himself. He was supposed to be her Right Hand. She needed to depend on him to handle whatever she planned to deliver.
He was starting to doubt his ability to do so with each passing day.
Soon, the rest of the Council came in, and a meeting about the barracks commenced.
19
Merciless Wishes
The creek just beyond the plateau babbled away through the bends and between the rocks. The rain had ceased early, and the air was crisp. The sun was low in the sky, climbing steadily behind the clouds. Tizzy sat by the water, her Ethereal sense running up the back of her neck.
“I know you’re there, Eidi.”
The banshee appeared, rising up from the creek. Her frown was heavy, and her stare cold and accusing. She waited, hovering in front of Tizzy without a word.
Tizzy huffed. “What?”
“You’ve been following Torah around. I know you have.”
“Does that mean you’ve been following me?” She smiled, but it was riddled with darkness. “I thought I could sense you hanging around. Just because you’re invisible doesn’t mean you’re hidden from me.”
“Tizzy, why do you keep stalking him? Stay away from him! He’s falling apart, so let him do it in private!”
“I’m not doing anything but watching. What harm is there in that?”
“Because it’s not just watching,” Eidi snapped. “You’re learning his habits.”
“I’m disappointed.” Tizzy checked behind her at a clutch of moss and rocks, then stretched out, putting her arms up behind her head to relax. “He’s boring as hell.”
Eidi’s frown turned into a pout. “I don’t want to teach you anything else. I don’t trust you.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t need your lessons.” Tizzy rolled her eyes. “I doubt you’ve got much more for me anyway. Unless there’s a way I can learn your banshee scream without actually being a banshee.” She grinned, but Eidi did not share her mood. “What are you so afraid of, hm?”
“I think you’re going to kill him even after you said you wouldn’t.”
“Torah?” Tizzy turned her gaze to the sky, taking in the simple beauty of silver clouds and the fresh scent of the forest. “Of course I am.”
“Please, Tizzy, I’m begging you.” Eidi floated down to her side, her eyes brimming with tears. “Let him be. I know what happened was awful, but it wasn’t what you think. And if Aleth has decided to let him be, you should too.”
“Aleth hurts himself to get back at others. If that’s how he wants to do things, fine. But not this time. Not with this. Someone has to set things right, and if it isn’t going to be him, it will be me.”
“I’ll stop you!”
“No you won’t.” Tizzy crossed her legs and kicked her foot. “You won’t touch me because he’d never forgive you. And goodness, if you fell out of favor with Aleth, what would you do with yourself?”
Eidi left, trying her hardest to hold in tears, and Tizzy couldn’t contain the smug grin that crept onto her lips. She was unstoppable.
“Do you two ever shut up?” Meeka stepped over a pile of droppings as Centa and Phio bickered behind her. “Watch out for that. Looks like deer are back in the Wistwilds.”
“It’s safe for them now, I’m sure,” Phio muttered. “Since the greenkind in the Bogwood will stop traveling back and forth till spring.”
“Not the orcs,” Centa said.
“Only the solitary ones! The rest will stay put within their settlements.”
“Since when did you become an expert on greenkind?”
“What, am I not allowed to know more than you?”
“Guys!” Meeka turned around on them. “Shut up! You have been arguing like this for hours! What is the problem?”
They stopped talking to each other. Boots crunching on dead leaves and twigs was louder than ever. Meeka couldn’t believe she’d put up with it for as long as she had.
They were close to Davrkton. She could tell by the trees getting thinner. The main road was close, but she kept them away.
“Phio’s still bitter with me because I had to let the horses go,” Centa said. “We would have been to Davrkton hours ago. There was no other way to do things, but it was still depressing to have to do it. I can’t blame him for being upset.”
“Then quit being so argumentative!” Phio said.
“I can’t help it!”
Meeka groaned, and the two men quieted. Davrkton’s wall came into view. Tall piled stone of grays, browns, and reds. She looked up at the guard towers—where they were standing put them between two towers set far apart.
“There’s a pretty good chance we haven’t been seen,” she said. “We could use the main gate, or we could look for another way in. It’s up to you guys. Doesn’t matter to me because if we’re gonna be screwed inside, it doesn’t really matter how we get there.”
“The main gate is less suspicious,” Centa said. “And easier. If we get caught trying to sneak in elsewhere, I don’t have a good cover story.”
Phio didn’t fight it, so Meeka led them down the wall until they came to the main gate. There was a family of five being inspected, but otherwise, it was empty of traffic. Meeka noticed a man recording the family’s details in a log.
“Shit. Who are we?” she whispered.
“Don’t worry.” Centa patted her shoulder. “We’ll take care of it.”
Davrkton’s main gate guards were numerous, and they no longer wore the gray and sea blue colors that represented the town and the Undomien family ruling it. Now they wore ivory-colored tabards in sole allegiance to Oksana. Meeka didn’t know what to make of the new detail. Most of the guards were good-natured, though, making pleasant conversation with each other and the family, but there were some who were only there to soundlessly observe. Meeka regarded them with a glance. Sweat gathered at her temples.
One of the pleasant guards came over to greet them as they approached. “Good day! What brings you three to town?”
Centa smiled with hidden charm Meeka never imagined existed. “Just stopping for some good rest before we head north. We’re meeting family at our cabin off the Sheerspine.”
“Oh! I see. Are ya brothers?” the guard asked.
“No—” M
eeka suddenly burst in with a glowing smile, “—they’re my dads.”
Phio’s jaw clenched, but he shared her smile and put a rough hand on her shoulder. “Daughters are so needy. She can be such a princess at times.”
“Hey!”
“Alright, alright.” The guard laughed and waved them over to the man with the logbook. They were entered as Phiothilus, Kent, and Meera Heywood and ushered in.
Inside, the streets of Davrkton were busy. Midday was full of people working, shopping, and eating. They started searching for food and a cheap inn on the edge of town where there wouldn’t be many people, but Meeka begged for the delicacies being sold closer to the Marble Palace.
“Come on!” she said. “This’ll probably be the last chance I have to eat good and clean up nice on this mainland. It could be months before we see Siopenne! Let me have this!”
“Alright,” Centa sighed. “Just make sure you have enough of your funds for a ticket. We are not spotting you.”
They went to the nice marketplace and indulged in chicken sausage stew and cranberry cakes and got a little drunk on apple wine. Centa tried his hardest not to get weepy about leaving his old life behind, so Phio got weepy for him, and they all hobbled down the streets into the evening. They walked until they had a good view of the Marble Palace, then sat on the stoop of a closed gallery to take it in.
Phio rubbed his eyes. “Boy, you weren’t kidding when you said there’d be Hunters here.”
Meeka licked the sweet but tart cranberry filling off her fingers before taking another bite of her hand pie. “Yeah,” she said with her mouth full. “Guess they’re spying on this town the same way they’re spying on Suradia and Saunterton.”
“You sure that’s all they’re doing?” Centa squinted at the Palace. “I think a couple of them were just shown in at the front doors.”
“What?”
“Meeka, could they be working out of the Marble Palace?” he asked. “With the duchess?”
