The Soulstoy Inheritance

by Jane Washington

  I took off in answer, not waiting for either one of them to catch up, and didn’t speak until we got to the kingdom. We couldn’t pass through the game trail, as there was nobody to leave the horses with, and so we skirted the Northern Tiered City and entered through the Market District gates instead. People stared at us, though they weren’t hostile as they once were, merely wary, and perhaps a little awed.

  I didn’t understand it at first, until Harbringer spoke softly in my mind, perhaps sensing my confusion.

  You’re the Synfee Queen, Bea, and you went from traitor-to-the-crown to the girl who saved Hazen’s life overnight. Ashen and I would draw attention under any normal circumstance, but all three of us is quite a disruption to their daily routine.

  I didn’t answer him, testing the turmoil of my mind that usually kept him from my thoughts. It was surprisingly calm. I would have to work at guarding myself manually. People began to walk beside our horses, and I took it that word of our arrival had travelled to the castle, as there was a small gathering of people there waiting for us as well.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Harbringer of Pain

  I saw Rose first, and slipped from my horse, running the rest of the way to launch myself into her arms. She met me halfway and then oofed in surprised, so that I immediately released her. She ran her eyes over me critically.

  “Where is all that strength coming from?” She seemed amazed, and I looked down at myself, noting the plain tights and shirt combination. I looked just the same as I always had.

  “I’ve been training with the men every day. The Synfees are a little more… durable than the human guardsmen. I suppose they toughened me up a little bit.”

  She wasn’t afforded time to answer, as someone grabbed me then, sweeping me off the ground and twirling me about so that my legs cut through the air and my hair whipped across my face to blind me. That someone smelled like Cale.

  “Little Synfee! About time!” He set me back on my feet and I grinned at him, having to lean on Rose’s shoulder to regain my balance. “It’s been months, and you’re updates are painful. The last messenger you sent was escorted to the castle by a hoard of crossbows. Synfee gold isn’t exactly the height of fashion around here just yet.”

  I tried to hide my grimace. “I’ve been undergoing a bit of a transition.” I glanced to my side as Ashen approached. “This is Ashen, my ambassador. Ashen, this is—“

  “I know, of course,” Ashen interrupted. “I’ve seen the Sekron boy before, and Rose looks just like her mother.”

  The woman in question walked into the courtyard then, and broke into a smile, hurrying over to grasp my hands, and then my face, smoothing back my hair.

  “Bea! You left it so long! How are you sweetheart? You look good, though… there’s a bit of a bruise on your face. It doesn’t detract, I suppose nothing could. Hazen will be pleased to see you!”

  I laughed, a little overwhelmed by how quickly her sentences changed direction, and then caught sight of Hazen himself, walking out of the doors to the castle. I wanted to break away from Miriam and hug him, as I had the others, but this was King Hazen again. And King Hazen didn’t spin people around the courtyard as Cale did.

  He smiled when he saw me, and I felt his eyes take stock of every inch of my appearance, probably storing away the location of my newest bruises to bring up later.

  “Bea…” He pulled me into a brief hug, and then stepped immediately back, his face creasing in frustration. “Your mind… it’s different somehow; a little harder to grasp. What’s going on?”

  “She refused to feed,” Ashen supplied. “And has been terrorizing the kingdom with her horrific mood swings and bouts of Force ever since.”

  I made a face at him. “It wasn’t that bad.”

  “She broke a stewards leg, because he was walking too slow.”

  “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

  “Yes, but when you slammed Ayleth into the bannister and insisted it was accidental, we all knew you were lying.”

  I coloured, because he had me there. Hazen was staring at Ashen with one dark brow slightly arched.

  “Nareon’s brother.” He wasn’t asking, he was simply observing.

  “King Hazen,” Ashen dropped into a mostly mocking bow, in true Soulstoy fashion. “It is indeed a pleasure. I can understand Rose, but you have neither a speech impediment nor a limp, and Cale seemed equally unaffected by the markings that would specifically warm our Lady Queen to your presence.”

  Cale and Rose looked on with confusion, while Hazen burst into surprising laughter, and Harbringer spoke from behind me.

  “Well you managed to keep that quiet, Ashen.”

  “The Queen has been quite uncooperative, Joseph. I find it hard to believe that you would have warmed her to our cause.”

  Hazen’s laughter died off immediately, and when he turned his dark eyes on Harbringer, the rage in them was clear to all.

  “I warned you,” he growled, giving me a sickening premonition that my nightmare during the Throne Test might be seconds away from becoming a reality.

  And yet… I couldn’t quite put a stop to it. Nareon’s warning rose to the forefront of my mind, and I carefully constructed a mental wall, shielding my thoughts from both mind-readers.

  Hazen stepped up to Harbringer, who had offered no words in response, and the flash of movement was the only warning that any of us had as Hazen’s fist connected to the other man’s face with a sickening crunch. Except that Harbringer should have had warning.

  I stepped forward with my hand outstretched but then let it fall to my side again. Harbringer wasn’t fighting back, merely staring at Hazen as Hazen stared at him. Miriam had gasped and stepped forward also, but someone stopped her from coming any further. Harbringer’s eyes left Hazen and travelled to me slowly, reluctantly. No small kiss should have caused so much guilt.

  “What am I missing?” I asked the both of them. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “You had your chance, Joseph—you either tell her now, or I will.” Hazen seemed to be trembling, rage evident in every nuance of his bearing.

  I glanced at him, but he wouldn’t meet my eye. He still glared unblinkingly at Harbringer, who eventually nodded and reached for my arm. I allowed him to take it, and he drew me toward the castle—despite the fact that the King had just punched him in the face. Once inside, he pulled me into the nearest empty room and stood against the door, looking immensely agitated now that there were no witnesses.

  “Harbringer?” I wanted to approach him, but the twisting dread in my gut wouldn’t let me, so I only stood there. “Please tell me.”

  “I’m married,” he flung out, turning and placing his head against the door. “I’m married,” he said again in a much quieter tone.

  I felt a queer sense of combined devastation and relief, because Harbinger wasn’t working for one of my hidden enemies, yet at the same time, he had lied to me… and…

  “You have a wife?”

  “It’s not exactly what you think, but it doesn’t make it any better. She lost her mind years ago and she’s been under care—more or less locked up—since. It would tear her apart if I ever left her, so I haven’t.”

  I opened my mouth, closed it again, and found, very suddenly, that I didn’t want to be where I was. I didn’t want to ever see this man again, but that wasn’t fair to him either. He was stuck in an impossible situation, and he had taken the wrong way out.

  “Don’t make excuses for me,” he groaned. “I can’t stand it.”

  “I can be angry, if it makes it any easier on you.”

  “What about you, Harrow? I dragged you into this. I was your professor, and even when I wasn’t anymore, I was supposed to be protecting you! Don’t you see how wrong I’ve been? To you… to her… to Hazen… I told you, I’m going straight to hell.”

  “I won’t forgive you, not today.”

  He straightened, as if this was what he needed to hear.

  “I think I shoul
d stay here. You have a much better grip on things over the border now. You don’t need me there as much as you used to.”

  “You’re a fighter, Harbringer. You’ll waste away if I send you back to your Academy tower. You’ll waste away in your own guilt and misery. I won’t forgive you today, but you’ll have to forgive yourself at some point. If you think you can bear it, and if you think it won’t cause any more pain to your wife, I will take you back with me, and you will continue to serve as one of my advisors. I won’t ever force you to do anything. But…” I swallowed, “anything past that… it’s over.”

  “I need to think about it,” he whispered, and then he was gone, the door slamming behind him.

  I sank to my knees and stared after him, the pain starting to rip through me now that I was left with nobody else’s pain to focus on. I pulled my knees to my chest and buried my face between them, beginning to shake with the sobs that burned all the way down my throat. I wasn’t crying because I had lost Harbringer, I wasn’t even crying because his wife had been betrayed, though perhaps I should have been. I was crying because I fancied that I had been forging my own path for once, independent of the hidden agendas of other people. I had thought it a good thing.

  I didn’t look up as the door opened again, until I felt a tentative touch on my shoulder. I blinked the tears from my eyes and glanced up. Once I saw that it was Hazen, I pushed to my feet and sent a blast of Force at him without thinking. He shot backwards and collided violently with the wall beside the door, and I advanced on him, my eyes flashing with rage.

  “I’m glad I caught this end of your mood swing,” he groaned.

  I flew at him, aiming a hit at his midsection, though he stepped lithely out of my way.

  “I’ve never fought a mind-reader before,” I growled, flying at him again.

  He moved to side step me, and I quickly changed direction. The only problem was, no matter how quickly I shifted my attacks; he was always once step ahead. I blasted him with Force again and then stepped in with a swinging uppercut. He stumbled but caught my hand, and I found myself falling back with him. He should have twisted to trap me beneath him, it was what any decent soldier would have done, but he wound his arms about me instead, taking the full force of the impact as he hit the ground. His breath rushed out in a groan and I pushed off him immediately.

  “Dammit!” I yelled, stalking away from him. “You can’t even be selfish to save your own damn back!”

  “Can’t we talk about this without beating me up?” he muttered at the ceiling without getting up.

  “You’re just as bad as him!” I cried out. “You lied to me Hazen! I’m sure you knew about this the entire time!”

  “I’m sure you of all people would appreciate my ability to keep those secrets that aren’t mine to tell.”

  He didn’t say anything about Leif, but I knew suddenly what he was referring to, and the fact that he didn’t even acknowledge it out loud only seemed to emphasise his point. I walked back over to him and knelt by his side, looking down at him.

  “You did the best you could, I think.”

  An expression passed over his face, typically too fast for me to get a read of. “I didn’t do enough, clearly.”

  I offered a hand to him, and he allowed me to help him up, and then I pulled him into a spontaneous hug. He rested his cheek atop my head and held me to him, drawing me much closer than he had in the courtyard.

  “Your training has paid off,” he muttered. “It’s rare that someone manages to challenge me like that in a fight. I’d love to see you against Cudos.”

  “Cudos is brutal, and he fights dirty.”

  “So do you.” Hazen laughed.

  I pushed out of his arms and scrubbed at my face, trying to clear it of the evidence of my tears, and then I squared my shoulders and sniffed.

  “Alright, lets go back out—there’s something I need to talk to you about, and I have a feeling Ashen wants to be there.”

  “He reminds me of Nareon.”

  “Me too, though there are subtle differences once you get to know him.”

  “He’s been shielding his mind from me. I think he’s up to something.”

  “You can safely assume he almost always is.”

  Hazen chuckled. “You don’t seem bothered by that.”

  “Ashen and Nareon have one main thing in common; they never pretend to be something they aren’t. What you see is exactly what you get. Ashen is relatively harmless, Nareon certainly was not.”

  “Hmm…” Hazen opened the door for me, and then followed me back out to the courtyard, where Ashen seemed to be telling a story that had Rose, Cale and Miriam almost bent over with laughter.

  When he saw me, he immediately stopped talking, and narrowed his eyes on my face.

  “It would seem that your erring on the side of caution was not unfounded, Lady Queen.”

  “You look ready to jump to my defense, Ashen. How surprising. You must be a pirate after all.”

  “Quick’s been regaling me with tall tales of your training shenanigans. I highly doubt that you need anyone to jump to your defense. I didn’t see Joseph leave; is he still inside, lying in a puddle of his own blood?”

  “You sound far too delighted by the prospect, and no, he’s unharmed.”

  “Well then I change my mind about jumping to your defense, and perhaps I’m a bit of a pirate after all.”

  I simply shook my head at him as he lazed back against one of the pillars at the base of the outer stairs. His shirt was half-open, his weapons on full show as his coat parted with his cross-armed stance. His braided hair was threaded with some kind of golden string; a joke, perhaps, as he was deliberately shape-changing all of the gold out of his appearance to make himself look human. Eventually I couldn’t help the unwilling smile that curved my lips, and his eyes crinkled in return.

  I turned to the others. “There is something I need to discuss with Hazen, but I’d like for you all to be there.”

  An hour later, we had gathered about one of Hazen’s more official chambers, and I waited for their reaction to my news, and the hesitantly-put request that accompanied it.

  “How have I not known about these break-ins, if they’ve been going on for so long?” Hazen asked, pacing from one window to another.

  “Leif has an entire band of men that he has trained personally,” Ashen offered. “They are the best spies this side of the sea, you can count on that. And Nareon… well I have no explanation for him. He is Nareon Soulstoy. I suppose that will have to suffice.”

  “Which reminds me,” I added, “I think it’s time we put Nareon to the question.”

  I didn’t wait for any of them to advise me otherwise—and I could see from the look on Hazen’s face that he was seconds away from doing just that—instead, I called to Nareon in my mind. He appeared instantly, despite my fear that he wouldn’t appear at all. Oddly, the expression on his face was sheepish.

  “I was listening outside the door,” he admitted to nobody in particular.

  Hazen strode to the door and yanked it open to reveal a confused-looking man. He was a little bedraggled, and his eyes were black-rimmed. He glanced up at Hazen and turned a shocking shade of white, before stumbling backwards and bolting down the hallway. Hazen made to run after him, but Nareon rolled his eyes.

  “Oh leave the man be, he has no idea what’s happening.”

  Hazen turned slowly, eyebrows raised. “That’s how you’ve been managing to move around without Bea summoning you? You’ve been slipping yourself into his mind? Why him? And how is that even possible?”

  Nareon heaved a sigh, as if he were sick of having to explain this to people, when really he hadn’t explained it to any of us yet.

  “He’s weak, one of the feeders actually. It wasn’t easy to get into his mind, but once I managed it, he was very easy to control. I lost a few people before I found him.”

  “Nareon…” My voice was shaking, and when he turned to me, I could see that he was unhappy tha
t I had heard that last part.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart. It was unavoidable.”

  “You can’t just kill people whenever you want!” I yelled, jumping up and slamming my fist onto the table.

  Everybody turned to stare at me, all of them shocked except for Hazen and Ashen. Nareon blinked at me and then walked to stand before me, peering into my eyes.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “By god,” he whispered. “For a second there, I really thought my tyrannical ways were catching.”

  I felt my mouth drop open, and would have shoved him back into the table, except that my arms shot straight through his torso and the usual shock of cold had me jerking them back, trying to rub the feeling back into them.

  “Not funny,” I muttered as Nareon began to laugh.

  “You should know better than to talk of such things in front of her,” Ashen admonished Nareon. “She’s super sensitive to people dying. It must be the human in her.”

  I glared at them both, and Hazen moved back to his window, clearing his throat.

  “Alright, now that the inevitable part of this reunion is out of the way… We have a few questions for you, Nareon.”

  “I suspect I already answered them,” Nareon drawled lazily.

  My eyes shifted from him to the door, where the confused looking man had stood, and I slowly came around to the opinion that it had, actually, answered most of our questions.

  “If I go along with this plan,” Hazen said, turning his back on the window, “there will be two men with your… host… at all times. One will be mine, and one will be Bea’s. You don’t go anywhere without them, I want a full report of your movement. Whatever you see in that prison must also be seen by the eyes of the other two men, and if anything happens while I’m gone, I’ll make sure you never return to this world in any form. Do you understand?”

  “As long as Bea’s man isn’t Harbringer, I accept your terms.” Nareon flourished his words with the utmost formality, which was undoubtedly meant to parody his supposed state of servitude.