The Queen's Weapons

by Anne Bishop

  Daemon broke the link with Daemonar when Surreal walked into the study, followed by Holt and Beale.

  Daemon handed her both notes.

  Surreal read them and hissed out a breath. “No word from Jaenelle Saetien?”

  “None.”

  She frowned. “This is a girls’ party. Where is the cock and balls who will oblige Delora and claim Zoey wanted him too desperately to wait for a proper Virgin Night?”

  Daemon looked at Holt. “You reviewed the credentials and background of all the new servants? Including the ones here for training?”

  Holt nodded. “Nothing to link anyone here with Delora or her group of friends, male or female.” He turned toward Beale. “Just in case one of the youngsters can be flattered or bribed to look the other way for just a minute, we should have teams of experienced footmen assigned to the public rooms and to serve as escorts.”

  “Already done,” Beale said.

  “Then the cocks will slip in somehow.” Surreal met Daemon’s eyes. “But Delora will have to get you out of the Hall first. Can’t have the Black ripping apart her prize studs before they eliminate her rival.”

  “If anyone has told Delora about your skill with a knife, she won’t want you here either.” Daemon looked at Beale and smiled a cold, cruel smile. “I expect the bait will be something Surreal and I can’t ignore. If that happens, the protection of Lady Zoela and the other girls will fall to you until we return.”

  “Understood, Prince.”

  “I’ll show you some extra defenses that I created to help you with that.”

  * * *

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Surreal reviewed the guest rooms around this interior courtyard. Only two of the rooms had a bathroom en suite. Those were usually assigned to the most important guests in the party. Like a Queen, for instance. The remaining guests, usually the Lady’s companions and escorts, had to share the available bathrooms within this two-story square.

  She and Helene had agreed that Lady Zoela would have one of the en suite rooms, with Titian assigned to the connecting bedroom that would normally be occupied by a companion or escort. She expected the girls would share the bathroom but would have enough sense to sleep in their own beds in order to follow Sadi’s rules of romance.

  It set her teeth on edge to do it, but she assigned the other primary guest room to Delora. She didn’t like implying that Delora deserved the same status as a Queen. She knew what the bitch had done, even if she and Sadi didn’t have enough proof to bring the girl to the official attention of Dhemlan’s Queens. But Jaenelle Saetien would likely claim that her friend was being slighted if she wasn’t given the other suite—even though they weren’t supposed to know that friend was going to show up.

  “The family wing has been locked down with a Red shield,” Surreal said. “Prince Sadi’s private suite and that square of rooms have a Black shield. The maids understand that they’re not to answer any summons alone?”

  Helene nodded. “Feels strange to have hostile guests at the Hall, but we’ve had them before and the staff knows what to do. I’ve already paired off the maids to make sure that at least one of them has had some lessons in defending herself. Same with the footmen who are on duty to look after the guests. You think this girl and her friends will be so foolish to start something here?”

  “She isn’t foolish, but she’s arrogant enough,” Surreal replied.

  “It’s all girls at the party.”

  “Yeah.” And every time she’d thought about that and why the girls should be safe, she had honed another knife.

  “I’ll be bunking in the staff’s room across from those guest rooms. Sadi is planning to stay in his study to keep an eye on things until the girls retire.” And he would still be there in the morning. Watchful. Ready.

  “Are you going downstairs to greet the girls?” Helene asked.

  “Oh, I’ll be down there, but not exactly to greet them.” She gave the Hall’s housekeeper a sharp smile. “I intend to shove the truth of what I am right down the little bitches’ throats.” And hoped that would be another layer of protection for Zoey and Titian.

  * * *

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Everything’s set?” Delora asked.

  “It’s set,” Krellis replied. “You sure she’ll convince her father to let us stay?”

  “I’ll convince her. She’ll convince him.” Delora smiled. “It’s a big place. Plenty of dark corners. And Jaenelle Saetien’s papa won’t even be there. Just make sure you take care of Insipid Zoey before he realizes his mistake and returns.”

  “With pleasure.” His eyes gleamed. “I’ve given a couple of our secondary cocks a chance to prove themselves with a blooding and breaking.”

  “Proving themselves on Jhett and Arlene?”

  Krellis nodded. “Not much of a test, since the bitches won’t be able to use their own power to defend themselves, but the boys will get it done.”

  * * *

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Jaenelle Saetien felt exhilarated as the girls finally piled into the Coach and the driver caught the Winds and headed for SaDiablo Hall. She’d had parties before, and she’d had friends stay overnight at the town house. But she’d never had a house party like this. And she’d never arbitrated a truce between two quarreling groups of strong women.

  She heard Hespera laugh at something Delora whispered.

  Something about the sound made her a little uneasy, felt just a little wrong, so she hoped Mikal had received her last message and kept the puppies at the cottage tonight.

  * * *

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Four Scelties arrived at the Hall. The fifth dog, the journeymaid Black Widow, would remain with Tersa, Mikal, and the puppies. She would also stay alert for any trouble in or around Manny’s cottage.

  Two of the Scelties would stay near Beale, lending whatever assistance he needed; the other two would roam the corridors near the guest rooms to encourage humans to behave.

  Daemon leaned back in his desk chair and rubbed his temples as he waited for the girls to arrive. But it wasn’t his head giving him trouble tonight; it was his heart.

  * * *

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Lucivar stood on the flagstone courtyard outside his eyrie. Below him, he could see the lights in Riada’s houses and businesses. In the mountains, he saw the lights glowing from the windows of other eyries. Everything as it should be.

  But there were no lights shining anywhere on Ebon Askavi. At least, none that he could see. A knife-sharp coldness that had nothing to do with a winter’s night was coming from that direction. It wasn’t a coldness that touched his skin. It was a cold rising up from somewhere deep in the abyss.

  *Rothvar?* he called. *Anything I should know about tonight?*

  *We made a last sweep before sunset,* his second-in-command replied. *It’s quiet everywhere in Ebon Rih.*

  Not everywhere, Lucivar thought, staring in the direction of the Black Mountain.

  He turned and went inside to have dinner with his wife and younger son. All he could do now was wait—and be ready for whatever his Queen required.

  * * *

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Zoey was being a bitch.

  To keep things equal, Jaenelle Saetien had wanted Zoey and Delora to walk in right behind her, leading the rest of the girls. As the daughter of the house, she had to enter first so that the rest of the girls would be acknowledged as her guests, but when Zoey realized she and Delora were supposed to be considered of equal status, she stepped aside and suggested that Delora and her friends go first. That instantly divided the girls into Zoey’s friends and Delora’s friends, and that was exactly the line Jaenelle Saetien had wanted to erase with this party.

  It also put Delora, Hespera, Amara, Borsala, Leena, and Tacita in her father’s sights the moment they walked into the Hall. Maybe, hopefully, h
e would be in his study working and she could get everyone to their rooms and settled before he found out about the unexpected guests.

  “Good evening, Beale,” she said when the butler opened the door and stepped aside for them to enter.

  Her steps faltered, almost causing Delora and Hespera to run into her. Her father stood in the great hall, his hands tucked in his trouser pockets. He didn’t smile in greeting. He didn’t step forward. He didn’t say a word. He just looked at her with a chill in his eyes that felt like he was slipping needles of ice under her skin.

  “Father,” she said. “Some friends couldn’t make it, but other friends were available at the last minute to round out the house party.”

  “Ladies Delora, Hespera, Amara, and Borsala weren’t on the guest list you provided, but they were expected,” he said with cold civility that was worse than a shout. “Lord Beale, please escort our guests to their rooms. Ladies, a buffet will be served in the dining room in one hour. Lady SaDiablo, your presence is required in my study now.”

  He turned and walked away, expecting her to follow meekly.

  “How rude,” Hespera said in a loud whisper. “My father would never treat guests that way.”

  “I think the message is he is treating the guests as they deserve to be treated,” Zoey said. She looked at Jaenelle Saetien and added on a psychic thread, *Be careful. Don’t let Delora and Hespera push you into doing or saying something you’ll regret.*

  Jaenelle Saetien lifted her chin and stomped into her father’s study, ready to do battle.

  He stood in front of the desk, just as he’d stood in the great hall.

  “Since you were so pissy about Delora and her friends not being invited to Titian’s Winsol party, I had to wonder why you didn’t invite them to a party where you controlled the guest list.” His voice had become silk over burning ice. “I didn’t like the conclusion I reached about your honesty, but we’ll table that for now. Right now I want you to know that if you ever again change travel plans that involve a Queen and don’t inform her host and her escorts, I will assume your intentions are to cause her harm, and I will summon every warrior at my disposal to go to her aid and to hunt you down.”

  Jaenelle Saetien stared at him, shocked. “We just changed plans.”

  “Someone changed plans. I’ll agree with that. Exactly why? Well, that’s what we’ll find out, won’t we? It’s clear that Delora has you wrapped around her little finger, and you will do whatever she wants you to do.” His lips curved in a cold, cruel smile. He took a step toward her. “But here is what I’m wondering, my darling. How much of your honor have you whored for her? How far will you go to please that bitch?”

  His words crushed her ability to speak.

  He walked up to her, his arm brushing hers as he walked past her. Then he stopped and whispered, “Make sure none of the other guests come to harm, and make sure Lady Delora obeys the rules of this house. If she doesn’t, she won’t see another sunrise. I will bury that bitch in a grave so deep, she will never be found. That, by the way, is something I learned how to do by watching Dorothea, but I am a much better gravedigger. Even she couldn’t find my graves. I wonder if Delora, whose psychic scent reminds me so much of Dorothea, has acquired that skill.”

  Jaenelle Saetien gasped and focused on the threat, ignoring what he said about Delora’s skill. “You’d kill Delora just because someone has an accident while they’re here?”

  “Kill?” He laughed softly, and there was something dark and terrible in the sound. “I’m not feeling that merciful.” He waited a moment, then added, “You’re dismissed.”

  She stumbled out of the study.

  “Shall I show you to your room?” Beale asked.

  “I know where my room is,” she snapped, too frightened to remember anything, even courtesy.

  “The family wing is closed and shielded. You’ve been assigned a room with the other guests.”

  What in the name of Hell was going on? They’d arrived a little late. So what? Was her father being unreasonable just because Zoey was a Queen? She was in trouble because of Zoey?

  As she followed Beale to the assigned guest rooms, she knew Zoey wasn’t the reason she was in trouble. She should have sent a message to let her father know the change in arrival time. She should have told him she wanted to invite Delora and that group of friends—and told him why—instead of bringing them to the Hall and hoping he wouldn’t make a fuss. But everyone else’s father would have shrugged it off, would have been just a little bit indulgent.

  She could almost hear Daemonar saying, Who is everyone?

  But to have her father say she was whoring her honor when he was married to that woman? That made her so angry, she could scream.

  She’d deal with her feelings later. Right now she had to impress on Delora the need to follow the rules of the house, the need for everyone to follow the rules of the house. Delora would want to dismiss his words as a bluff, but Daemon Sadi never bluffed when he talked about killing someone.

  * * *

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “This is a lovely room, Aunt Surreal,” Titian said. She glanced at Zoey, who was leaning against the connecting doorway.

  “We assumed you two wouldn’t mind sharing a bathroom,” Surreal said with a smile. “And no one will kick if the door between your rooms remains open. But Prince Sadi’s temper is cold and sharp tonight, so don’t test him. Sleep in your own rooms and in your own beds.”

  “I should have informed him of the delay when I sent the note about Jhett and Arlene not coming with us,” Zoey said.

  “It wasn’t your responsibility, and you had no reason to think that he hadn’t been informed. But it seems Jaenelle Saetien needs to learn the consequences of ignoring basic rules and courtesies in order to appreciate the reason for those rules and courtesies.”

  Her aunt looked sad. Looked . . . wounded. And worried.

  “Should we go back to the school, Aunt Surreal?” Titian asked. “Or go to the town house?” They’d have to take the friends who had come with her and Zoey, and she didn’t know where they would all stay at the town house.

  “It’s better if we stay here,” Zoey said.

  “Yes, it is,” Surreal agreed. “I’ll be staying in the staff room on the other side of the corridor. If you need anything, or if anyone starts any mischief, you call me.”

  “We will.”

  “I’ll make sure the other girls are settling in.” Surreal left Titian’s room.

  Titian looked at Zoey. “I wish we’d never agreed to come to this party.”

  “We’re safer here,” Zoey insisted. “Delora has been leading Jaenelle Saetien into believing things that go against the Old Ways of the Blood, and your cousin refuses to see it—or can’t see it.” She hesitated. “Are you wearing the good-luck piece Daemonar gave you?”

  Titian had never explained exactly what that mark of safe passage was or what it was intended to do—or who had given it to Daemonar to give to her—but Zoey wasn’t a fool and had realized weeks ago it was a lot more than a good-luck charm.

  She touched her chest and felt the coin hanging on its chain just below the pendant that held her Birthright Summer-sky Jewel. “I’m wearing it. I wish I could give it to you, but . . .” But the mark had been blooded and wouldn’t work for anyone else.

  Zoey gave her an odd smile. “I have my own luck charm.” She called in a knife and slid the blade out of its finely tooled leather sheath.

  Titian’s mouth dropped open. “That’s . . . That’s Lord Kohlvar’s work.” Her father said that Kohlvar was the finest weapons maker he’d ever met.

  Zoey nodded. “Your father gave it to me as a Winsol gift. A private gift.” She gently slid the blade back into the sheath and vanished it.

  “Is my father going to teach you how to fight with it?”

  “Daemonar has started teach
ing me the basics with a wooden blade. Once I’m proficient, your father will add to the instruction.”

  Titian had never wanted to learn to fight or use weapons, and her father hadn’t forced her to learn beyond a few basic moves that were more about defense than fighting. Now she wished she’d learned more. But Zoey wasn’t aggressive, so this need to know how to fight puzzled her.

  “Why?” she asked.

  Zoey looked away, which wasn’t like her since she usually met problems or questions head-on. “Since they share a name, I guess I understand why Jaenelle Saetien doesn’t want to hear the stories about the Queen who was so powerful and so beloved, but I want to know everything I can about the Queen of Ebon Askavi and her court. I want to be strong enough to stand up for myself and my people. I love my grandmother, and I think she’s a wonderful Queen, but the Dark Court is legendary. Every powerful man in the Realm had been connected to that court, your father and Prince Sadi the most powerful among them. I wish I knew what she had studied so that I could study those things too. Sometimes I wish there was a way to talk to her.”

  Be careful what you wish for, Zoey, Titian thought as she touched the charm again. She wouldn’t say anything, wouldn’t reveal what remained unspoken but known within her family, but she would ask Daemonar if it might be possible, just once, for one Queen to meet another.

  * * *

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Jaenelle Saetien’s temper spiked when she saw Surreal standing at the railing outside one of the bedroom balconies. Her bedroom, which was away from the rest of the girls.

  “Why was I assigned this room?” she demanded. Had Surreal talked to Delora and Hespera? How mortally embarrassing! This party was going from bad to worse and it hadn’t even started.

  “We weren’t sure which camp you were in, so you have a room that straddles the line,” Surreal replied.

  “You make them sound like enemy forces about to do battle at dawn. They’re two groups of friends who want to find a way to get along.”