Kaila entered her father’s circles one after another as he held the opening for her and Jaeson.
She took the first seat, furthest from the other witch, noting the subtle flinch of their prisoner as the sand curtain flapped shut again.
Most air-witches would feel claustrophobic in here.
Jaeson and Kaila had grown up under the crushing feel of earth, used to the way it felt to measure each fresh breath. Her father would never let them truly suffocate.
It was all part of the interrogation process. Not quite torture, but it was meant to make their prisoner—with her air magic known—uncomfortable.
Her father took the closest seat to the witch.
Jaeson walked behind her and took the far side, a little further from the witch, and closer to Kaila. He leaned across the table with his forearms, partially cutting off the witch’s view of Kaila.
No one spoke. Tea was handed out by her father without much ceremony.
The delicate cups her father had chosen to use—likely from the inn—looked so fragile in Jaeson’s hold, especially as he double-handed his cup and brought it to his lips.
They were playing up their threatening strengths. It wasn’t exactly subtle.
One could imagine Jaeson’s big hands choking the air from a witch as easily as the tiny cup that he could crush like something from a toy tea set.
“Why not poison?”
Her father asked his question as Kaila and the witch both took sips of tea. The witch choked on hers.
“Excuse me?” asked the witch. She put her cup down, dry swallowing.
It would be much too late if they’d planned on poisoning their prisoner.
“The royal court prefers poison as a weapon. Of course, they’d be rightfully wary of my daughter’s strength giving her the ability to detect any poisonings.”
Her father had answered his own questions.
Only a fool would try to poison Kaila.
“I’ve poisoned her a time or two—all pranks!” Jaeson said with a toothy smile.
She didn’t know Jaeson could fake a smile that wide.
He wasn’t bragging—he really had pranked her with potions a few times. All it took was a bite or a sip.
Earth clans didn’t care much if you were poisoned—more important was how you withstood the effects.
Heal yourself or suffer. Cowards spat out a deliberate poisoning from family. It was a challenge being refused.
“You’re bragging about poisoning his daughter?” asked the witch, eyeing her own cup even more warily.
“Wouldn’t you wish to brag if you’d managed to kill my daughter? Who hired you for Kaila’s assassination? It would have brought a pretty penny as well as bragging rights.”
The witch clammed up.
She had none of the arrogance expected of an experienced assassin. A killer took power over her victims. Didn’t necessarily mean the killer was stronger, but that was the impression killing left.
Arrogance was common. Often it led to downfall.
“Well, you would be best reminded of how the court prefers poison. When you are with us, we will test all food and drink that we give you, but once you’re freed . . .” Jaeson said.
The witch would last a day or two at most.
Her father had to know it was a death sentence to set the witch free after her failed task at killing Kaila.
She was a loose end that needed to be tied.
“You’re letting me go?” asked the witch.
Not one question answered by her yet.
Kaila wasn’t sure if this was how her father had planned for his interrogation to go, but she held her tongue.
Undermining her father’s authority would force him to put her in her place. Infighting was something they ought to avoid in front of the prisoner.
Besides, her father was firm but fair. He would not play with Kaila.
A quick show of strength from the general would leave Kaila with her head bowed—not her preference in front of others.
Jaeson had been in the same place before, when they were younger, and she’d smirked. It was unlikely he’d forgotten it.
Their clan relied on her father’s strength. None of them could fairly ask him to weaken his hold on them and risk the clan looking weak in turn.
She’d hated that mentality as a child. Now, she could appreciate that it was tough love and not a power trip that drove her father to rule iron fisted.
It was only for outsiders. The same hand that pushed her down to the ground in a deferential bow had also wiped her fevered brow through every illness.
Few outsiders knew how her father had taken over the role of her dead mother. He had never hired a nursemaid, raising her as best he could alone.
“Drink a sip of her tea, Kaila,” Jaeson ordered, breaking the silence.
They hadn’t answered the witch’s questions.
“Pass it down,” Kaila said.
She took a perfunctory sip and pushed the cup back towards Jaeson.
“I only wish that the general poisoned this cup, but he’s always left that part of Kaila’s training up to me. Was there anything for the witch to fear in her refreshment, Kaila?” Jaeson asked.
“Drink freely,” Kaila said.
“One conversation is all I ask,” her father said. “I’ll not free you to be killed by whoever employed you in turn. Our clan has well guarded caves with supplies for a month. It should be long enough to allow us to settle the debt your attack incurred with those that ordered it.”
“Or you can wait for whoever has promised to free you if you were caught—but then, our promises for safety are void,” Jaeson said.
The witch sipped at her tea. She didn’t look like she enjoyed it at all.
Poison was one of the scariest weapons.
Food wasn’t all one had to watch. A knife or arrow dipped in poison was often employed as insurance that a strike would end a life.
The witch may not have thought herself vulnerable until the general poured her a cup of tea and asked her why she didn’t just poison Kaila.
This interrogation was enlightening. Jaeson and her father seemed practiced at it, playing off each other well.
There was no way the two of them had been mouldering away, gathering dust in their earth clan lands. They’d been sharpening their strengths, keeping in practice to fight—when, not if, needed.
“He said no poisons. Nothing with a trace of earth to leave a trail back to him.”
The witch’s first answer was a crude bomb to drop. Each of them got splattered, all reacting to the information differently, depending on what they’d read into it.
Her father leaned back in his chair and put down his teacup.
Jaeson stopped smiling.
Kaila stood.
Daemon had said that William had poisoned the king. Kaila should have shared that information with her father sooner.
“I wish I’d killed William when I had the chance,” Kaila said, not even enjoying it when the witch gave a damning flinch.
It had been more than a lucky guess, but the witch was unaware of what Kaila already knew.
They eyed each other warily.
“Sit down!” her father ordered, reminding her that the general was still in charge of this interrogation.
She already knew everything that was important to her. Telling it to Jill was what took precedence. Her youngest had been much closer to death than she’d realized by accepting William’s claim.
“I need out,” Kaila said, white knuckling the table with her frustration.
She had to hit something. A couple miles out of town and she could let loose the fit of temper exploding inside of her.
“Wren, it was in or out, not in and then out. You said you wanted to be here. Don’t leave the witch in the company of two old earth-lords. She’s contrite and prepared to talk,” Jaeson said.
The witch nodded.
Kaila cracked her end of the table.
Couldn’t they see she nee
ded to get herself under control?
Jaeson reached for her, pulling one of her hands from its destructive grip on the table and yanking her by the wrist towards him.
He hadn’t even left his seat, giving the witch a reassuring glance, while he manhandled Kaila over to him.
She let go of the table with her other hand, unprepared to fight Jaeson when he used his real earth-strength against her. He wasn’t messing around.
Somehow, she found it easier to let Jaeson pull her than to wait for her father to push her back to her spot.
Once they were alone, she could properly show her outrage at being forced to appear obedient.
Jaeson could be challenged privately, whereas her father’s command was always unquestionable.
Once a witch reached Kaila’s maturity, she realized that her parents weren’t infallible. If her father wasn’t the general, she might be allowed to rebel.
Jaeson wasn’t new to the role of being her friend or an equal combatant, whatever she needed, after she had to bow to her father.
“Stop picking on the table. It’s the inn’s furniture, not ours. Sit down on my lap, wren. Your father and I heard you. Let us all listen to the rest of what the witch wants to say, so we can plan your retaliation together.”
Kaila didn’t make a fuss. She sat primly on one of Jaeson’s knees, her back as upright as a board.
He was going to get her vengeance on William.
She could be patient for a little longer.
“Well then,” her father said, giving Kaila a cool look over his teacup. “Shall we get on with putting the corkscrews to her thumbs?”
Kaila rolled her eyes. Her father was making light of her over reaction and the witch’s fears, which Jaeson had stated out loud.
“Stop it, father. You know she was coerced. Ask what she was protecting first!” Kaila said, letting her gaze leave her father’s sharp one for the witch’s frightened one.
“You can’t do anything,” said the witch. “It’s probably too late. We failed and they will have already . . . It’s too late.”
“What’s your name?” Jaeson asked. “Just your first name, not your clan, if you prefer.”
“Saerien,” she answered.
That first bit of information was important. It started the exchange, made the witch more comfortable.
Jaeson quickly capitalized on it.
“Well, Saerien, we buried all of the other attacker’s bodies under a ton of earth. Given William doesn’t want anything that traces back to earth-magic, I doubt any searchers will have uncovered all of them yet. It isn’t too late to do something.”
Her father went next.
“Yes, Saerien. Why would William destroy the only incentive he has for you to not talk? Whoever it is you are protecting, is living on borrowed time.”
“We can hide you and any others. I imagine William is looking frantically for you. He would make you all sorts of promises if you agreed to go with him and leave our . . . captivity,” Jaeson said.
“Lies,” her father said. “Threats are a stick that a bad trainer can’t ever put down, else he risks getting the wild animal turned on him.”
The witch no longer wore the bruises from the beating she’d taken to be coerced into attacking Kaila, but her eyes were still haunted.
The stick was a good analogy.
“So . . . she’ll never be safe from Prince William?” asked Saerien.
“I can do my best to have her brought to our clan caves to wait with you. Then, it is up to your own strength to protect her,” her father said to the witch. “You could fight.”
That last bit of encouragement sealed the deal. She didn’t want to cower, but she needed a hand up to stand strong.
“My mother, Esma,” Saerien said, giving them her leverage.
Elizabeth released a slow, deep breath. No one else would have to suffer.
“Thank you, Saerien. We will take care of your mother. Give us the information about where you think Esma may be held. Tell us something that will get Esma to trust us. We will send out swift messengers for two of my finest soldiers, trained to be shadows.”
Saerien agreed. She quickly told the general the information he requested, which he wrote down.
He dismissed himself from their group, leaving them all locked into his circle while he hurried downstairs.
Kaila had seen an earth-vampire at the bar. She’d ignored him, not recognizing him from her clan.
It had been so many years. She’d obviously overlooked another of her father’s soldiers.
The soldier hadn’t been here when she’d first arrived. Perhaps he’d followed behind the general. There might be a whole battalion that had lagged behind.
“I hope you do kill Prince William, milady,” Saerien said as they sat encircled and waited.
“That pleasure may need to be shared,” Jaeson said.
“Only one of us needs to commit a royal assassination,” Kaila said. “I’m already being accused of crimes against the crown. What’s one more?”
“Don’t forget the demon,” Saerien said, interrupting their argument.
“What demon?” Kaila asked, wiggling on Jaeson’s lap.
She did it purposefully, digging her heel into one of his feet at the same time.
Too bad, he’d broken her kitten heels. They’d had a metal spike.
“General Norwood. Well, he’s not a general anymore—quit not long after the clan wars—but my mother remembered him. Demon fire generals of his rank were never forgotten. He was the one that wanted to ensure you died, even if it meant the death of everyone else with you. Prince William argued otherwise—he especially wanted Jill taken alive.”
Kaila had frozen on Jaeson’s lap. Her mouth gaped open like a fish uselessly sucking air, when out of the water.
Jaeson shut her mouth with a gentle finger on her chin.
“The demon is mine. I promised Jill there would be two bodies. I assume this was the second one that had been missed?” he asked Kaila.
“I killed him,” she dumbly said.
“Did you check for a pulse?” he asked her softly, no judgement.
“No. I was preoccupied with carrying my half-dead young daughter out of the castle, with her older sister clinging to my side,” Kaila admitted.
Oh Maeren, Jill and Elizabeth would freak out when they—
“Did you just say that you promised Jill two bodies? Jill knows he is alive?” Kaila asked.
“Yes,” Jaeson simply answered.
This was Kaila’s fault for not ensuring she’d slayed that monster completely. A beginner’s mistake, and one that may be costly.
“You can kill William. I’ve changed my mind. The demon is mine,” Kaila said, trying to keep emotion out of her voice.
Jaeson wouldn’t let her near the fighting if he thought her emotionally compromised.
“We will discuss it with the general,” Jaeson said, not agreeing to anything on his own.
What a sly way around making a decision right now.
If she was standing, she would have stomped her foot.
“Should we wait for his return to go over the rest of what I know? Time is of the essence, even if you have slowed Prince William down by burying the bodies of your attackers deep,” Saerien said.
Kaila took a deep, cleansing breath.
Saerien eyed her and repeated the action.
Both of them needed a moment to refocus.
“No point waiting. Our ears work as good as the general’s for listening. Release me, Jaeson. I’m going to take my father’s seat,” Kaila said.
His grip on her hips—started when she had wiggled purposely on his lap—tightened for but a moment, then he released her.
“Of course, Lady Kaila,” Jaeson said.
He purposefully hadn’t used her married surname—Norwood—and Kaila wondered if that was because he’d hoped Saerien didn’t make the family connection to Kenneth.
What kind of assassin didn’t even know the nam
e of her target?
One that had been forced.
Saerien was guided through debriefing the planning and execution of the attack by simple questions and prompts from Jaeson.
The biggest concern was that the attack had been underpowered.
Had they assumed Kaila had gotten soft in the human realm—or that Kaila’s magic had somehow been lost, like with other soulless witches?
Both were weak arguments. Everyone at the royal castle had seen or heard about her daughters using their magic—why would Kaila’s magic be any less?
Kaila has also told the court that their family had lived on the edge, not admitting to hiding in the human realm.
The most important conversations that Saerien recalled were with William and Kenneth. Both conversations had been short, and to the deadly point they’d wanted to make—each with different targets.
Another vampire, ordered by William, had given most of the direction to the assassin team.
There was nothing more for Kaila to learn here. The general showed up as Saerien finished talking.
Kaila shot up out of her father’s chair.
“I’d like to leave. I need to talk to Jill about a demon from our past. Jaeson can summarize the rest of what we talked about,” she said, walking towards the curtain her father had made in his circle barrier before he could close it again.
Her father used one hand to snag her by the arm and pulled her close.
“Air-barrier, just us,” her father whispered.
She did it automatically.
Her father never asked to keep secrets from Jaeson—and doing so blatantly in front of him was only inviting questions later. There had to be an important reason.
“We will deal with this together, Kaila. I know it must come as a shock. Jaeson and I have discussed some of what we think happened in the past after Jill reacted to the news of only one body found at your castle ruins—rather badly. I want to hear the story from your lips. It’s past time to talk about that dark period of your life. Do not run. If you try to take Jill and escape, not only will you have that fire-water prince on your heels, I will unleash Jaeson. You agreed to him courting you downstairs, and I’ve not raised you to tease a lord and cruelly spurn him. Once was enough. Stay here and let us deal with what haunts you together.”
Her father’s speech was acceptance, protective, angry, and chiding, all mixed together. It was underpinned by trust that she’d broken.
Witch Darkness Follows (Maeren Series Book 3) Page 33
