Val took a slow breath, sensing his sudden peril. “Are you sure we are secure?”
Her brow furrowed. She flashed the tiniest of smiles, slowly nodding. “There is nothing you need worry about save the woman before you, lad. I promise you that. I will ask you a second time. How do you know that name?”
Val pulled himself fully out of Shadowmind, refusing to acknowledge the hot sting he felt in watery eyes, the racing of his stupid heart. “Look at my features. You tell me.”
Agda went stock still, eyes widening at what she saw, her hands clenched into fists. “The boy in the pictures I cherished looked the mirror image of his father. But now you...”
“Look like Hanna?” A breathless pause as her eyes widened, Val having said words that could never be taken back.
A single tear trickled down the woman’s cheek. “Yes. You do. Your eyes are still Johnathan’s. No one would think you were the child of an exotic, but I can see your mother’s stamp upon your features far clearer than I ever could before.”
“And by exotic… a catchall term in the Jordian dialect for any member of the Asiatic tribes. A term it seems all too many Highlords use synonymously with pleasure maidens because Tytus's jump gates weren't the first time our worlds intermingled, and the mixing resulted in increased fertility. Is that about right?”
Agda dipped her head. “Precisely, Valor, though successfully crossbreeding the first generation is toughest. The daughters that result are almost always exceedingly fertile, however, as are succeeding generations of both sexes. Hanna’s sire was strong with exotic bloodlines, and it showed. He sired far more children than the average Jordian with gifts, though only Hanna and her sister wear his bloodline so visibly.”
Val blinked, carefully gazing at Jade, now gazing back at him so strangely. “So Jade is Hanna’s sister.”
Agda swallowed, gazing at Val so intently. "Yes. Yes, she is."
Val smiled, wiping the odd stinging heat in his eyes. “It’s a good thing I didn’t flirt with my aunt then.”
Agda broke into startled laughter. “Indeed it is, Valor. That might have been quite awkward.”
Val held out his hand. “It is good to meet you, grandmother.”
She clasped his hand with her own, wiping her eye. When she took his measure, he forced himself to meet her gaze, hiding nothing. “It is indeed, Valor. It is indeed.” When their clasp ended and they eased back into her seats, Agda almost solemnly took off a golden ring, putting it in the center of the table.
Val quirked a curious eyebrow. “I take it that is significant?”
Agda smiled and shrugged. “Perhaps.”
Val smirked. “So I guess this means I get to live.”
She chuckled at that. “Of course you do. As if that was ever in question.”
He tilted his head. “Wasn’t it?”
She sighed. “Only if you had been deemed a threat. Only before I was sure.”
“That I’m not some inquisitor plant trying to worm my way in because behind all their simpering placations and self-righteous declarations, they’d wipe our clan out in a heartbeat if they thought they could actually get away with it?”
She flashed an icy smile Val recognized all too well. "Your insight serves you well, get of my get." Her gaze hardened. "And we don't do anything to endanger the icy truce that has nonetheless served us for generations. No matter what games are in play, inquisitors and the High Council are off-limits, Valor. Just as we are to them.” She abruptly raised her hand. “This is true on all Dominion worlds, no matter our strength in one particular system. And kin or no, for angels’ sakes, please don’t say anything you know I don’t want to hear! Just tell me you understand the tenets, as were explained to you this day, and that you will never speak of past indiscretions with anyone!” Her gaze hardened. “Because of course there were none. I will vouch for that, for you’ve never given me reason to think otherwise. Do you understand, Valor Hunter?”
Val nodded, hoping Agda wouldn’t sense his racing heart. “I do. Except through lawful challenge or in defense of my own, I won’t decapitate any inquisitors, no matter how much they have it coming. But the way I heard it, the High Council are off limits and immune to challenge, even if they come after our own.”
Agda frowned. “Even Overlords show us due respect, as we do them, and no council member has ever dared deliberately test that gross exaggeration. It would be more accurate to say that the very few times one of our lovers was a member of a House that was struck down by Overlord or council, we were paid triple blood-price as recompense, or were given lovers and immediate families as a courtesy when they were put up for auction, their dignity restored, former clan affiliations and title replaced with neutral allegiances.”
“But what if our children belong to the clan the High Council would bring low? Or our lover carries our child already?”
“Then lover and child should have been immediately moved to a Dauda safe house. Few things happen in the council that we are not intimately familiar with.” She arched a bemused eyebrow. “Your mother intermingled with strong blood indeed. Are there great-grandchildren I should be watching over already, Valor Hunter?”
Val gazed intently at the woman who reminded him so much of his mother, both seeming to fade into the dim-lit room, as if the pair suddenly sensed the added need for discretion. A faint, high-pitched hum could now be heard. Despite touching Shadowmind, Val could still sense Agda perfectly, though she seemed oddly washed of color. As if glimpsed under dim fluorescence, deep in the night.
“We may not strike the High Council with killing blows, according to the accords. So be it. What of eyes in unexpected places, pawns moved to boards unexpected, so long as the hands moving them are free of any stain?”
Agda’s eyes were hard, for all that she chuckled softly. “I would say my grandson plays dangerous games indeed. And how the one child Hanna did her best to spare the madness of politics and mayhem arrived at this juncture, at this time, so comfortable with the games we play, is a tale I would have one day, young Valor.”
A breathless pause. No waiter dared disturb them. No one even thought to look their way.
Val took a deep breath, sensing all the players on the board. Jade. Agda. The man in the back of the dimly lit room, eating quietly by himself, looking one too many times at the leather case by his side. Val had sensed the odd electromana emissions emanating from it the moment Agda had turned on what Val could only assume was a jamming device.
Agda dipped her head. “We’ve been aware of him for quite some time. His entire squad. They serve us well enough, in their own way.” She favored him with a matronly smile, for all that she looked a sleek and beautiful 25, as did Jade. “Now why don’t you tell me why you’re really here?”
Val’s fingers gripped the polished hardwood table. He counted the precious seconds away before he said the words from which there would be no turning back. “My province has claimed the red.”
Utter stillness. Agda’s piercing blue eyes gazing so intently into his own. “Your allies dare the Rite of Ascension. And you would join them in their mad quest. Not as a Highlord armored in a pristine suit of ego and pride with a mind like a battle-mech, but as a child of Shadow, whose only defense from eyes that blaze and burn is to hide from his foes.” She shook her head, her gaze conveying an odd mixture of sorrow and pride. “I can taste the bitter crow that will one day mark your grave already. And how fiercely proud I am of you for daring what most would never dream of.”
Val dipped his head. “I sense you already preparing for my loss. But what if I won? Imagine if the future Overlord owed allegiance not to a corrupt council, but to those close to his heart and kin to his blood?”
Agda flashed a sad smile. “There are few boons greater than those you would receive from an Overlord grateful to have Dauda under his banner. But do you even know what it means to take a life?”
Val let her see what he normally kept hidden from those who could never understand. “All too wel
l.”
“I see that you do.” She nodded once. “I was hoping you might be spared that burden. But do you know what it means to duel a Highlord intent on cleaving your head free from your body just like in Nova Wars? Do you know what it means to take on an army, Valor?”
Valor nodded. “I do. On both accounts. And in real life, unlike the movies, Highlords favor thrusting with the point. It greatly reduces the risk of self-mutilation and allows you mastery over an opponent who is then indentured to your service, as opposed to a corpse that serves no one and possibly a blood feud.”
His grandmother flashed an approving smile. "Very good, Valor. Blade and shield used in a manner that favors thrusts to head or torso works well for that style of fighting and for allowing any opponent to yield. Very few Highlords would dare a style as offensive and risky as that favored by our earliest ancestors.” She gazed pointedly at where Val’s blade rode upon his hip. "And even fewer possess working blades over a thousand years old. Have you truly bested Highlords with such a weapon?”
Val smiled. “I am well versed in longsword versus blade and buckler, and I can pivot my blade around them quite well, so long as I seize the Vor.”
Agda raised a curious brow.
“A fighting style I practiced back on Earth, the blades balanced quite similarly to that of a Psiblade’s… inertial reference? I don’t know if I can exactly call it weight, but its hilt and balance matches the sparring longswords I once used almost perfectly.”
His grandmother smiled. "Were you truly able to maintain Shadowmind throughout the entirety of those duels?"
Val grimaced. “All save one.”
“Then how did you survive, or were you bested and spared?”
“It was a close fight, closer than I’d like. He fell for my feint, however. Then he fell to my blade.”
“Even though he could read you, he still fell to your bluff?”
Val grinned. “I didn’t know I was bluffing until after the fact. It’s… complicated. But it worked, and I’ve done my best to level up my skills since then. If I’m lucky, not too many foes will be able to break my one defense in the future.”
Agda quirked a curious brow. “Level up?”
Val blinked, grimaced, realizing he had just opened a major can of worms before she abruptly chuckled.
“Faith would say the same thing! Remarkable how fast that child grew into her powers.” She sighed, fondly shaking her head. “Somehow, it doesn’t surprise me to hear you using similar terms. Faith always thought it was because she was a child of both worlds.”
Val shrugged. “Basically that’s correct. Since we have multiple reference points, we can triangulate our growth when we defeat our foes and the locked potential of their lives suddenly becomes our own. And I already know Faith can visualize a character sheet as well as I. Once upon a time she enjoyed MMORPGs as much as I did."
Agda dipped her head. “For all essences are ultimately preserved, even the potential of self-direction, the weight and potency of the soul. Part and parcel to Highlord religion, even if unprovable, save for all the data showcasing improved survivability and quality of life for almost all soldiers who endure multiple engagements, most especially mages and Psionicists of various temperaments and tribes. Your sister actually had a chart she was working on that explained the principles quite exquisitely.”
Val blinked at this. “Remarkable.” He gazed intently at his grandmother. “I don’t know how much you can tell me, I just want to know...is Faith okay?”
His grandmother frowned. “What do you know of your sister’s whereabouts, Valor Hunter?”
“I know I would never want to say or do anything that would endanger her, so why don’t you tell me where she stands before I tell you anything else?”
Agda sighed. “She took on a contract brought in by a party to whom we owed several favors. I thought it extremely questionable, despite the plethora of evidence suggesting that taking out the target would be an act of justice. My reservations aside, with multiple markers called in and our honor at stake, we were obligated to honor the request. Several affiliates were more than willing to engage, yet Faith insisted she take the contract." She flashed a sad smile. "Faith is highly skilled, but as ruthless as she sought to forge herself, hers is not the heart of a killer. At first, she would only accept the least controversial of contracts, bounty-hunting missions more than assassinations, targets who were clearly rotten to the core. But later? Nothing save reconnaissance or bodyguard detail. In truth, I found it strange that she was willing to take such a controversial assignment, and I have not seen or heard from her since."
Her gaze grew intent with Val’s slow nod. “And I have already told you more than I should have without her permission. I am hoping you can help me in turn. Do you know what happened to my granddaughter? I would never casually put her at risk, and this job was perilous, no matter how strong the forces she had at her back. And all appears to be madness at our client’s end. I have heard nothing from any party. Not Faith, nor anyone associated with our client.”
Val chose his words carefully. "The Blackenthorps sought the throne and sought to get rid of a piece they feared would strike unexpectedly at a later time. They were wrong. Grossly so. I suspect they were fed misinformation by yet another party that wants to see Christine Highblood dead." Val waited for a reaction, noticing the slight flaring of nostrils, the tension in the brow. Good as Agda was, Val instantly knew that she knew exactly what he was talking about.
Val reached out with his hand, his grandmother hesitantly taking it. “Christine has always been a friend to your clan, and loved Hanna deeply, I suspect, for many years. She did everything she could to help my mother conceive. Faith, Justice, and I are proof of that. Had Christine and my mother come to Earth even a decade later, they might have been open about their relationship, for all that they were married to separate men. So when a certain Blackenthorp sought to use Hanna’s own child to cut down a woman who could have been her second mother, well, things didn’t go exactly as he had planned.”
Agda flashed a relieved smile. “So. The evidence was completely fabricated.”
Val nodded. “I think it was.”
“And Faith?”
Val’s gaze turned sad. “We spoke for just a heartbeat in time. I knew she wanted to tease me something fierce, as deadly as our situation had been. We parted as friends, and I am worried about her. I want to make sure she’s okay. I want her to know I don’t blame her for taking that contract, even if she had to leave immediately for whatever reason.”
Agda frowned. “The Blackenthorps make powerful enemies, Valor. They are one of the very few clans we need to be wary of. I assume you are sheltering with the Highblood Clan? Be extremely careful, grandson.” She gave a thoughtful nod. “I can see now why her clan chose the red. With multiple foes willing to strike from angles unexpected, she might actually live longer scaring off rival blues by flipping her suit, so long as she negotiates with a powerful red and rides under his banner before she herself is struck down.”
Agda tilted her head. "Do you and Christine seek to make alliance under Blackenthorp's banner, thinking your chances of coming to a mutually beneficial accord might be stronger with a Dauda intermediary?" She gave an approving nod. "You would, of course, be absolutely correct. And now things start to make sense! I have a number of chips I can put into play to assure safety for my grandson and his mother’s former lover.”
Agda tapped her chin thoughtfully, just like his mother used to do. Val smiled. “Grandmother?”
“Yes, Val?”
“I walk the Path of Kings.”
Agda immediately stilled. “You don’t just mean that as a term of convenience, do you.”
Val flashed a cold smile. “Blackenthorp Province will ride under Shadow’s banner.”
His grandmother lurched, gripping the table, gazing at Val with an odd combination of awe and horror. “Valor, you aren’t seriously telling me...”
“I am bound, body
and soul, to three territories whose destinies I can shape. Christine’s former province is one of them. Lucius Blackenthorp’s is another. Greengrove Province is home to an ancient mystical tower long thought lost to legend, complete with magical groves and caverns rich in Elementium.”
Unable to contain her curiosity, a shadowy Jade had discreetly flowed beside her mother some time ago, perhaps the only one able to focus on the pair conversing half in shadow. For all that she had spent most of that time focused on all the patrons around them, now she turned to gaze at Val with growing wonder.
Val dipped his head in acknowledgment of her presence and spoke on. “Besides the entirety of Blackenthorp’s forces, mages will soon be fighting under my banner, and if fortune favors me, other souls like myself, who can level up as well. But I only recently found out how badly the deck is stacked against me. Against all of us who aren’t Caligula’s favored. The council is as good as in his pocket already.”
Jade’s jaw clenched. “I don’t know how you know what you know, but beware the High Council, nephew. There are players among them that can pierce Shadow with their terrible gaze, and then, only then, are we truly vulnerable.”
Agda dipped her head in agreement. “Their head, a Highlord who has only made his move for power after Tytus fell, can Pierce the Veil of our greatest defense. But one reason why caution has been our closest ally for the last two years.”
Val nodded. "And it explains why one of you was acting as a bodyguard for the High Council. Far better to be a useful pawn than a liability or threat that a certain Highlord might use his rare skills to dispose of if he can."
Jade scowled. “Too true, nephew. Too true.”
Agda looked impressed. "You spotted Timothy? Well done, grandson."
Val smiled. “I knew he was there, yes. He was gracious enough to inform me about the virtues of cuttlefish stew.”
Jade chuckled softly at that. "My mate does have a sharp wit about him." She swallowed, gazing intently at Val. "Considering how fearsome the game you play, thank you for thinking with your head, not with your blade. Had you acted on the hate you no doubt feel… I dread the nightmare our lives might have become."
Oblivion's Peril Page 40
