She was smiling a horrifying smile, something that made her look like a demented crone.
“What did you…?” He looked at the flames surrounding him. He glanced down at his body. He was still huge and muscled. And Pairce wasn’t conscious. She was bleeding, though. There were puncture wounds in her shoulders and neck— “Pairce!”
He looked at Maib. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Oh, bring her here,” muttered Maib, flicking her hair over her shoulder.
Cadon couldn’t do anything. His arms were tied to his chest and his legs were tied together.
Maib sighed. “Fine.” She loped across the room to them, leaping casually over trenches full of flame.
Pairce slid down Cadon’s body and pooled in a bundle of limbs on the floor.
Maib’s hand turned to flame and inserted itself into Pairce’s chest.
Suddenly, Pairce’s eyes opened and she sucked in a sharp breath.
“There,” said Maib.
Pairce got to her feet. She was still covered in blood, but the puncture wounds on her body were healed.
“It was that poisonous snake,” said Maib. “Its venom got you. They were magical creatures, though, so it’s easily undone. You’ll be all right, but you should probably rest up and drink a lot of water. And no swimming for at least an hour, I wouldn’t think.”
“What snake?” said Cadon.
“Cadon!” Pairce turned to him, gasping. She caught his face in her hands and kissed him on the mouth.
He made a mmmphing noise against her lips, still staring at Maib.
Pairce pulled back. “She fixed you.”
“Did she.” Cadon wasn’t convinced.
“You’re welcome,” said Maib. “Up the stairs with the two of you. Take your coffin with you.” She pointed at it.
“I don’t see how we’re supposed to bring that,” said Pairce.
“He can lift it,” said Maib, shrugging. “Well, really, enough with the outpouring of gratitude. I have things to do. Go away.”
“We’re grateful,” said Pairce. “Obviously we’re grateful. Very, very—”
“Goodbye,” said Maib.
Pairce sucked in a breath. She looked at Cadon. “Can you really carry the coffin?”
He looked back and forth between Maib and Pairce. “You’ll have to untie me if you want me to carry anything.”
“IT’S FINE,” SAID Haid to Pairce’s servant. He and Sefoni were at Pairce’s townhouse. They had no plan, but he was hoping something would come to him. They had, however, thoroughly broken in the carriage. Thrice. “We’ll wait until she gets back. Show us to a sitting room. And if there are any of those flatcakes you had last time we were here, you could bring some of those.”
“I have no idea when she’ll be back,” said the servant. “She brought a man in a coffin, some sort of unnatural monstrous sort of thing. He probably drinks blood, and she might be dead by now—”
“Oh, is he here?” said Haid.
“He is not, as it happens,” said the servant. “She took him away again.”
“Hmm,” said Haid. Where could she have taken him?
“Furthermore, you are not the only guest waiting for Maiss Givons,” said the servant. “The Duke of Madigain is already waiting in the sitting room.”
“Madigain?” spoke up Sefoni.
Haid pushed past the servant and into the house.
“You can’t just barge in here,” said the servant.
“I pay your salary,” said Haid, “so I will barge where I please, I think.” He made his way down the hallway and into the sitting room.
There, perched on a couch and sipping some tea, was Madigain himself.
Madigain got to his feet. “Well, this is fortuitous, I suppose. I was trying to get to you through Pairce. Since you’re here, that’s expedient.”
“What are you doing here?” said Haid, crossing the room, Sefoni on his heels.
Madigain smiled. “I want Yvain back.”
Haid let out a laugh. “Oh, you can’t be serious.”
“I know you have her, so let’s not play games,” said Madigain. “Whatever it is you want for her, let me know. Name your price.”
Haid shook his head. “Impossible, I’m afraid.”
“Nothing’s impossible,” said Madigain. “Come now, let’s sit down and negotiate a bit. If you don’t wish to talk here, I’d be happy to meet you elsewhere. Perhaps at the Sticx? You can assure Pairce that I will return Caith as soon as you and I come to an agreement.”
“Return who?” said Haid. “And what do you think you’re about, referring to Maiss Givons by her first name?”
“We’re acquainted,” said Madigain, and the leer on his face let Haid know how.
Haid was about to answer when voices from the hallway interrupted him. The servant was babbling loudly that there were numerous persons waiting to be received in the sitting room.
The door burst open, and the first thing Haid saw was Cadon.
He was huge and silent and fully in control of himself.
Haid gasped. “You fixed him.”
Then he noticed that Pairce was wearing a bloody, torn bodice and skirt, and that she looked wan and pale and tired.
“What’s happened to you?” said Haid, starting for her.
Cadon intercepted him. He just put his body in Haid’s path and Haid stopped abruptly to look up at the man.
“Oh, you’re angry at me too, then,” said Haid. “Blaze everything.”
Cadon turned on Madigain. “Madigain.”
Madigain was eyeing Cadon. “Bretigern.” He chuckled. “Well, Maister Whiss, I suppose, since you are no longer a cownt, considering you’re dead and all. I liked you much better when you couldn’t talk, I must admit.”
Cadon closed the distance between himself and Madigain and wrapped a hand around the smaller man’s neck.
“Wait,” said Haid.
“Why?” said Cadon, not turning to look at Haid. “This man stood by while my stepmother turned me into a beast, and he is despicable in every way, I assure you. The world will be a better place if I strangle the life out of him.”
Madigain’s face was turning red. He managed a word, which he directed at Pairce. “Caith.”
Pairce’s eyes widened and she darted forward to put her hand on Cadon’s arm. “Don’t.”
Cadon turned to her.
“Well, I don’t like it when you’re violent anyway,” she said. “And you yourself told me you didn’t want to kill people.”
“I didn’t want to be a mindless killing monster, used for other men’s purposes,” said Cadon. “But him—”
“Cadon, let go of him,” Pairce insisted.
Cadon did, uttering a heavy sigh.
Madigain backed off, rubbing his neck and gasping for breath, relieved. “There, I knew we had a little something special, Pairce. I was always quite fond of you, too. The way you suck cock is inspired.”
Cadon went rigid.
Pairce’s face fell.
Haid rounded on the man. “My plans for you include your remaining alive, but I may be reconsidering that. Why would you—”
“I don’t need your help, Haid,” said Pairce. “I don’t even know why you’re here.”
“To apologize, obviously,” said Haid.
“He’s one of your… patrons?” Cadon’s lip twisted.
Pairce glanced at Cadon, and her expression made Haid clench his hands into fists.
“Strangle him, Cadon,” said Haid in a low voice.
“No,” said Pairce. “What have you done to Caith?”
“I knew you cared for her,” said Madigain. “That weekend that I had the two of you together, I could see that you were hired out together so often because you were friends. Maybe there was even real affection in the way you went at each other, who knows?” He shrugged.
Pairce flinched.
So did Cadon.
“Not a lot of weak links, really, not that I could exploit,” said
Madigain. “But then I knew about you, that Darain had bought out your contract, Pairce, and I thought of Caith. I thought that if I could get to you, you could convince Darain to give me back the Cowntess. So, here we are. Where is Yvain?”
“She’s dead,” spoke up Sefoni.
“No,” said Pairce. “Don’t tell him that, not when he has Caith.”
“Who’s Caith?” said Cadon in an even voice.
Pairce glanced at him. “Why are you like that about it?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Cadon, shrugging. “Perhaps it’s not the first time I’ve been with a woman who had a female lover that she wanted to provide for, who used me—”
“You can’t think that I am pretending with you?” Pairce gestured to her bloody clothes. “After this?”
Cadon looked away, abashed.
“What do you mean, dead?” spoke up Madigain, into the silence.
Sefoni stepped forward. “I mean that I burned her to ash. I pushed flame into her body until there was nothing left of her, except some fragments of bone, and I crushed those under my heel. I ground them and ground them until nothing of the Cowntess existed, and if you want to try me, I’ll do the same to you.”
Madigain’s lips parted. He swallowed, and his face had paled.
“Sefoni!” snapped Pairce. “What is wrong with you?”
“All right,” said Haid. “It seems we’ve hit a bit of an obstacle here. We were in a place of negotiation—your hostage for ours. But we have no hostage, and you do, so here is what we are going to do about that. You are going to tell us the location of Pairce’s friend, and we will verify that she’s alive, and in return, we won’t kill you. I imagine we’ll all fight amongst ourselves over who wants to do you in, but—”
“Did you know that my wife and child had died but scant months before I played that card game with your father?” said Madigain to Haid.
Haid let out a disbelieving sound that might have been a laugh. “What does that have to do with anything? Is that some sort of excuse?”
“Maybe I know a bit about what it’s like not to care about anything at all,” said Madigain. “Maybe you know that feeling, too. Maybe we have that in common. What is it you want from me, Darain?”
Haid lifted his chin and regarded the man.
Madigain spread his hands. “You have me here, and you could do as you like with me. If you want to steal something from me, if you have some elaborate plan to take something from me, why not just ask me for it now?”
Haid’s jaw worked.
“Well?” said Madigain, raising his eyebrows.
Haid looked at his feet.
“I won’t apologize,” said Madigain. “Your father was a buffoon and a drunk and a—”
“Stop,” said Sefoni, opening her palm and igniting it.
Madigain laughed. “There she is, protecting you again.”
“She does that,” said Haid. “And she does as she likes, so I wouldn’t make her angry if I were you. My father was…” His face twisted. “He was everything you say and worse.”
“You can’t have expected me to allow him to win simply because he was foolish enough to put everything on the line, can you?”
“You didn’t have to show up the next day and pick over my family’s bodies to get your winnings!” Haid’s nostrils flared.
“Well, I didn’t know they were dead when I arrived,” protested Madigain. “After I discovered it, I suppose I could have left, but it’s half-a-day’s journey by carriage out to that estate and—”
“I will burn you,” said Sefoni.
“Sefoni.” Haid shook his head at her.
She folded her arms over her chest. “I do as I like, I thought?”
“You do.” He sighed, hanging his head.
“Why can’t you extract what you wish from me and let it be?” said Madigain.
“Because it’s not about you,” Haid burst out with. Then he shook himself. He didn’t need to explain this to Madigain. “This isn’t important. What’s important is Pairce’s friend. What’s her name?”
“Caith,” supplied Pairce.
“Caith,” said Haid. “Where is she?”
Madigain glared at Haid. “Not about me? Who is it about then?”
Me. I need to atone. I need it to mean something. I can’t just ask you for the tiara, not like this. It won’t be enough.
Furthermore, the tiara was in Rzymn, and it would take days—a week—for someone to travel there and back. He wasn’t going to hold Madigain prisoner waiting for it. He had a plan.
Maybe the plan didn’t make sense, but…
Well, he was driven to complete it. It mattered.
“Listen to me,” said Madigain. “When my wife and child died and I survived, I blamed myself for not dying with them, and I tried to punish myself for it. But you know what I discovered, Darain?”
“I don’t care what you discovered,” muttered Haid.
“Neither do I,” said Cadon. “If you felt such guilt over something that was not truly your fault, why is it that you feel no guilt over the truly horrible things you have done?”
“Because it doesn’t matter,” said Madigain. “Nothing matters. There is no justice. There isn’t even a right and a wrong. Don’t you see? We are all free to do as we please as long as we can get by with it. So, why not do what gives me pleasure and riches and power? Why worry about anything else?”
“Where’s Caith?” said Pairce, and her voice cracked.
Madigain rolled his eyes. “I’ve got her in Yvain’s dungeons. You can take my signet ring and bid the man in my carriage to go and fetch her. I can have her back here in half an hour, I warrant.”
Haid held out his hand. “Ring.”
Madigain slid it off his finger and placed it in Haid’s palm. “She was fond of you, you know?”
Haid didn’t know who the blazes Madigain was even talking about. “I don’t know Caith.”
“I mean Yvain,” said Madigain.
Pairce snatched the ring from Haid. “I’ll deliver the ring and message to the man in the carriage, if you don’t mind. You can stay here and listen to him flapping his lips.”
Madigain smirked. “Well, it’s rather obvious you’re not going to kill me, so I’m not entirely worried at this point.”
Haid bared his teeth at the man. The blazes of it was that the blackguard was right. Haid wasn’t going to kill him, not now.
Madigain crossed the room to the couch where he’d been sitting when they came in and he settled back down into it. Making himself comfortable, he gave them a satisfied little smile.
Haid wanted to slap it off the man’s face.
Next to him, Cadon was tense. He turned to Haid. “You don’t own me, and you don’t own Pairce.”
“I have told you that I don’t own anyone,” said Haid, who thought this was a strange subject change.
“I’m only saying that if I want to kill him right now—”
“We’d best wait to make sure he’s not lying about Caith, don’t you think?” said Haid.
Cadon folded his massive arms over his chest and glowered down at Haid.
“You’re… immensely threatening,” said Haid, swallowing. “Has anyone ever told you that?”
Cadon sneered at him.
“She used to talk about you,” said Madigain. “Genuine fondness when she did, I assure you. Yvain wasn’t one to bestow her favor easily, but she cared about you.”
“She wasn’t capable of caring about people,” said Sefoni in a tight voice.
“And you, Whiss,” said Madigain, “I should think you’d want to thank us for what we’ve done to you. You used to be nothing. You were pitiful. Now, look at you.”
“Yes,” said Haid sarcastically, “I’m sure that being imprisoned and having his very will taken from him was quite the favor.”
“You were supposed to die,” said Madigain. “Overall, I think things have turned out rather well for you.”
“I am going to kill you,
” said Cadon. “Pairce may not wish me to kill things, but I don’t care. The only question is when. Think about that, then, Madigain. Ask yourself how many men you should leave on your door when you sleep. How many do you think I can take at once? Do you really think that I can’t get to you whenever I want?”
“Oh, well, Pairce doesn’t want me dead,” said Madigain. “It’s as I said, we had something.” He cocked his head to one side. “You know, I find myself confused about all of that, Darain. Are you with both of them?” He pointed at Sefoni and then at the door, where Pairce had gone. “Do they know about each other?”
“I’d like an honest answer to this question too,” said Cadon, glaring at Haid.
Haid gestured to Sefoni. “My wife burns people to ash. She’s a goddess of flame and power. She’s beautiful. How could I possibly not be satisfied with that? Furthermore, she’d likely kill me if I displeased her.”
“I would not kill you,” said Sefoni. She considered. “I don’t think.”
Haid shrugged. “Here’s the thing, Cadon. You think those thoughts of yours are going to go away when she’s proven herself trustworthy? They won’t. The thoughts just happen. She is trustworthy. When the doubts rear their head, it’s up to you to choose to trust her.”
“So, it’s Pairce and Whiss?” said Madigain.
“Mmm,” said Haid, still eying Cadon. “So, Madigain, I might reconsider taunting him about whatever villainy you’ve forced upon her. I know you like taunting, but, as he pointed out, I don’t own him, and it’s not up to me if he kills you.”
Cadon seemed to still be puzzling over whatever it was that Haid had said to him about trust. By the time he turned back to Madigain, Pairce was back in the room, saying that she’d sent the carriage off, and that the man was to return with Caith quite soon.
“Braon Mainse will know of what you did,” said Pairce.
“Mainse is a weakling,” said Madigain dismissively. “Why do you think he needs to tie up his women? He can’t feel strong any other way.” He chuckled. “There’s no secrets I don’t know about the aristocracy, you realize? Even if Mainse wanted to try to hurt me, I could destroy him by airing his hidden shameful activities.”
“I’m going to kill him,” said Cadon to Pairce. “As soon as Caith is back here, I’m going to do it.”
Scars and Swindlers Page 20
