by TR Cameron
He looked from her to his wife and back to her without speaking. His eyes narrowed. “You planned this?”
Cali shook her head. “I stupidly thought you’d honor your word. We’re merely in improvisation mode, now. But it looks like me and mine are better at it than you and yours.” She ran a hand down the front of her dress to remove a piece of lint she’d noticed. The outfit from her mother’s wardrobe displayed subtle black patterns on a black base with turquoise spots and slashes here and there. Her belt with the compass buckle finished the look nicely. She regretted not having taken Kayleigh up on the hidden knife for her boots.
The man nodded. “And then you’ll go?”
“And then I’ll go and leave you two to…well, whatever it is you’ll do.” She didn’t think it would work out as he planned but there was no reason to mention that.
The patriarch stiffened as if he’d made an important decision. “It’s hidden in my house—in a safe in the basement room. I can tell you how to get there.”
She nodded in false concentration. “The staircase with the traps to the false safe, which is also trapped. Right. See, the problem is that I know you’re lying. It turns out that when you spend your evenings alone in the den before the fire, you talk to yourself. Your secrets—like this fake answer—aren’t so secret.” Her face hardened. “I don’t want to have to do this the ugly way, Styrris. But I’ll do whatever I need to do to get that information. Up to and including having a friend of a friend cut you to ribbons until you give it up.”
The man turned to stare at the servant and the man blurred into action. She knew from the listening device that someone loyal to him was present in the house and had assumed it was the attendant when she’d noticed him. Even if he wasn’t, preparing as if he was had no downside. He yanked a pair of long slender needles from his sleeves as she turned toward him. Styrris’s agent moved faster than he should have, doubtless due to magic, and she couldn’t risk a magical counter in case he was immune to it as so many of her recent enemies seemed to be.
Her attacker took a direct path to her, which kept him out of range of the matriarch and Styrris. By the time he reached her, the bracelet on her left arm had transformed into her fighting stick and she whipped it at his leading hand and the needle he extended toward her face. His bones shattered and the metal object spun away. She assumed it was poisoned because otherwise, it was a highly ineffective choice of weapon.
Before he could recover, she dropped the stick, used her left hand to push him onward, and grasped his broken hand with her right. She yanked him forward and redirected his momentum to rotate him into the wall closest to her. He fell with a groan, and she stamped her boot on his other hand to be sure he couldn’t retrieve either of his fallen weapons.
Cali turned to check on Brielle and saw the Malniet patriarch—former Malniet patriarch since that house doesn’t exist anymore—close his fingers over one of the dropped needles. His wife recoiled with a shout of alarm, and the girl saw in an instant what was about to happen. Either he’d murder the woman, become the de facto head of Cormier, and probably blame it on her, or he’d kill himself out of spite to deny her the knowledge she needed if he felt he’d lost. It was guaranteed that he would be wearing something to protect him from magic because people like him always ensured their safety above all else.
Reflex took over and she summoned a wall of force with her left hand to block him from Brielle. She yanked the buckle off her belt and popped the blade out with her right, a move she’d practiced a hundred times since she’d received it to the annoyance of those around her during meals and conversations. To give it a spin, she hurled it sidearm and aimed at the patriarch’s hand, which was already easing the needle toward his body. She managed a nudge of force to adjust its trajectory and wished for what had to have been the millionth time that she had any aptitude at all for telekinesis.
It sliced along his arm and he cried out and dropped the needle. She launched forward and punched him in the solar plexus, retrieved the zip-ties she’d slipped into her boots, and secured him. As she drew a relieved breath, her legs turned wobbly and she sat heavily on the table and barely avoided the tea service. Brielle cleared her throat and said, “Thank you, Matriarch Leblanc.”
“No problem. But I hope your taste in men improves. I guess I’ll have to make good on that threat. I’ll never understand why people have to suck so much.” She shook her head. “All this for power and glory? Some of you nobles need a hobby.”
The other woman laughed. “Some of we nobles, you mean.” A smile spread across her face. “To your points, first, my taste in men has already improved.” She gestured at one of the guards who had burst into the chamber at her cry of fear and said, “Admit him.” A moment later, a tall man in an expensive business suit entered the room. “Matriarch Leblanc, meet Vinton Rivette, my fiancé.”
“What is this nonsense?” Styrris sputtered.
She turned to him and her smile widened. “Hush, Styrris. The Empress has chosen not to recognize our marriage. It’s as if it never was. Vinton is an old friend and a much-improved choice for a husband.”
Cali could have cheered at the sick look that spread across the defeated patriarch’s face. It serves you right, you bastard.
The newly confident Brielle’s next words were even better. “And you don’t need to cut him up. I know where the real safe is and the combination to it so you won’t have to worry about any traps. You see, he talks in his sleep too. Many old men do, I’m told.” She raised an eyebrow at Styrris. “Vinton doesn’t, though.”
They had to stuff a handkerchief in the man’s mouth so his raging wouldn’t interfere with their laughter, which was loud and long.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cali made her way to the bedroom that held the hidden passage at the head of a procession. Fyre paced at her side and Emalia walked behind her, followed by Invel, Zeb, and Scoppic. Tanyith brought up the rear, talking softly with Jenkins. A thread of magic released the concealed door and she stepped into her brother’s chamber with Defender in its scabbard and grasped in her left hand and the spell to counteract the magical poison on a sheet of fragile parchment in her right.
Because of course, the idiot Malniets would use the oldest, most traditional route they could find.
Getting it hadn’t been difficult once Brielle had revealed her secrets. She had asked what the Cormier matriarch wanted in exchange but apparently, leaving Styrris in her possession was enough for her. Justice, I suppose. She tried not to think about what form that justice might take.
Ozahl, Usha, and Danna had been more than willing to let her take what she needed. Cali sensed a little tension among them but it didn’t particularly concern her. The Leblanc mansion was secure and Zeb and Invel were making plans to add even more magical defenses to those already present. She and her brother would be well-protected before anyone returned to New Orleans.
An orb floating in an upper corner provided the only illumination for the bare stone room. The heavy sarcophagus dominated the small chamber, and she moved to the far end of it. The unadorned white object was shaped like the figure trapped beneath it but lacked any detail beyond the general form. It seemed cold and impersonal.
She remembered having to push the lid off on her previous visits but today, she had help. “Emalia, could you move the lid?”
Her great-aunt didn’t reply, only gestured. The top of the sarcophagus floated aside to reveal her sibling within. Atreo was sealed beneath a force shield that shifted and pulsed in changing colorscapes. Again, she found it shocking how similar his features were to her own. She took a deep breath and spoke barely above a whisper.
“My brother was locked in here to preserve his life from a poison that would have shredded his mind. His body has continued to grow while the field halted the progression of the poison. He was frozen as a child.” That wasn’t the right word, but it was all she had. “There’s no telling how he will emerge from this but it has to be better than being
trapped here.”
Cali sniffed against the tears that welled in her eyes. It had been a long road to this moment and the precipice of fulfilling her parents’ plan to save their other child. Fyre, who had leaned against her since the moment they’d stopped walking, sent her emotional reassurance and magical strength. What would come next was impossible to predict, and everyone present stood ready and willing to assist. She couldn’t have asked for a more perfect scenario to awaken her brother, except to have Elisinia and Thomas Leblanc beside her.
With a deep breath, she steadied herself. She handed the parchment to Emalia and drew Defender from its scabbard. Her connection to the sword activated quickly, and the memory of how to undo the stasis spell came to her in an instant. Can it really be that simple? Simply reach out and touch it?
Fyre spoke into her mind, a testimony to her thinking loudly once again. Sure. Simple. You only need the right blood, the right sword reconstructed from shards spread all over the place and guarded by everything up to and including zombies—and, oh yeah, to get said sword to accept you without possessing you and eating your brain. Which kind of makes it a zombie too if you think about it.”
Her mouth quirked into a smile and the moment turned from fear to hope. She nodded her thanks and extended her hand. When it met the field, a ripple of turquoise spilled from her fingers, spread, and bounced off surfaces as it increasingly replaced the other colors. When they were gone, it transformed into a shower of sparkles that flowed toward the ceiling and vanished. Her brother took a halting breath but didn’t open his eyes.
She held the parchment out with her right hand and spoke the words on it as she sent her magic into the sarcophagus until she imagined it spilling over the brim. Her voice gained strength as she repeated them over and over, trying to cover him and suffuse him with the power. Suddenly, she fell inward as she had with Defender when she’d first met those inside.
Instead of a barren landscape, though, she found herself in her favorite of the house’s many dens. Two wingback chairs stood opposite one another on either side of a gaming table that held a chessboard. A game was in progress, based on the position of the pieces, but she had no idea who was winning or losing. She glanced up and couldn’t take her eyes off the person across from her.
The image of Atreo leaning back in the seat bore a smile that she recognized from her mirror. His hair was less red than hers—more copper-colored—and lacked the curl. The clothes he wore looked like what she’d seen in her father’s wardrobe in the mansion. He nodded, and his voice sounded exactly as warm and resonant as she’d expected it would be. “You got your curls from Mom. I got this from Dad.” He waved at his head.
“You can hear my thoughts?”
He shrugged. “Thoughts and speech are essentially the same in here.”
Cali looked around and noticed that the edges of the room wavered slightly, proof of their unreality. Fyre was present too, she discovered, curled on a couch a few feet away and to the side. “Where are we? Your mind, I guess?”
He nodded. “Part of the magic my parents—our parents—left was this place. They did it so I could read and learn while my body grew. I don’t know how they did it.” He laughed with no trace of concern in the sound. “I don’t know how they did any of it, honestly. I’m merely glad they did.”
While he talked, Cali had a creepy sensation of familiarity that she didn’t understand. He laughed at her again. “I know, right? It’s like we’ve been together for some time, even though I’ve been essentially a mummy. But fortunately, not a zombie.” He paused, raised an eyebrow, and grinned widely. “Have you worked it out yet?”
Her mouth dropped open and she stared at Fyre. He opened an eye, snorted, and rolled onto his back with his paws in the air. She remembered Nylotte’s words about the Draksa from long, long before. “There’s something off about this one.”
She shook her head. “Are you telling me that you and Fyre are the same person? Er…being?”
He laughed again. “No, nothing of the sort. But I have been…uh…” He paused and shrugged. “Riding along might be the best word. For a time after I was stilled, our parents communicated with me a little. Emotions, that kind of thing. One day it stopped, and I went looking for them. I found him instead and he accepted me. I’m not sure he ever consciously knew I was there but I was able to watch things when he was awake.”
Mirth flowed through her from the Draksa, but it was at the new revelation, not a signal that he’d known. That would have felt different. “Good. It’ll make getting to know each other for real all the easier. So what do we do now?”
The figure across from her shrugged. “I have to imagine it will take my body some time to return to consciousness. Until then, we can visit like this. And, if he’ll let me, I’ll keep hanging out with Fyre. We won’t be able to talk or anything, but at least I’ll know if you’re well.”
Cali grinned. “I can’t wait. Whatever is ahead, I’m glad we’ll be together for it.”
Chapter Thirty
In the former Malniet mansion, Danna sat with Ozahl and Usha in the den, which had been cleansed of the Leblanc listening device and was now fully secure. Mercenaries patrolled the grounds, and Ozahl had spent hours ensuring that the wards protecting the premises were as powerful as they could be. It was necessary given the possibility that someone would try to take from them what they’d taken from Styrris and his family.
“So, with this done,” she said, “we have a question that remains.”
Usha nodded. “Leblanc.”
“They seem to be in a favorable position at the moment,” Ozahl replied. “Public defeat of their enemies, all their allies present in the city, and a whole host of guards patrolling.”
She shrugged. “None of which would stop us if we wanted to do it. Which leads our conversation once again to the beginning. Should we?”
Her boyfriend gestured for Usha to speak. The Champion of New Atlantis reclined in her large wingback chair and swirled the crystal tumbler of whiskey in her hand. The clinking of the ice cubes was barely audible over the crackling flames from the fireplace. Finally, she laughed darkly. “Why do I think that despite appearances to the contrary, that house is probably more dangerous than any of the other seven we might choose?”
Her companions joined her laughter. He said, “She has proven to have more lives than a whole clowder of cats, that one.”
Danna took a sip of her bourbon and shook her head. “You’d almost think she was born under a lucky star or something. Things seem to go her way more often than not.” She stretched her neck and sighed. “Look at everything we threw at her. Not to mention what the Malniets did.”
Ozahl nodded. “I tried several ways to try to take her off the field. They all failed.”
Usha shrugged. “So, with all of that stacked against us, it seems like it would be the height of stupidity to target her again, don’t you think?”
“I agree,” she replied, followed a moment later by Ozahl. She continued, “Now what? Simply relax here and enjoy the plunder of the Malniets while we decide what we want to do next?”
Her former boss shook her head slowly. “I think I’ll use my Champion’s house for something different since I have a place on the grounds to live.” She’d accepted their offer of one of the outbuildings on the property. When the time came that their claim was formally recognized, Usha would be named their heir, pending children, of course.
“What’s that?”
The other woman grinned. “It seems to me that our dear Empress Shenni has become entirely too comfortable within the thick walls of her palace. She’s forgotten what it means to be the caretaker of the people. I aim to remind her.”
Ozahl chuckled. “And how will you accomplish that?”
“A little extortion here, a few threats there. New Atlantis has never really had a criminal underworld and it seems like it’s past time for one. I’ll be kind of an undersea Robin Hood—take from the rich, share with the poor, and give th
e local rulers as many ulcers as possible.”
Danna laughed. “She’ll know it’s you.”
He shook his head. “Knowing and being able to prove it are different things. Especially when you have friends with certain skill sets.” He gestured at his body and his features morphed into a copy of Usha’s. “This outlaw can literally be in two places at the same moment.” He waved again and turned into himself.
“So, are you saying you’d support that effort?” Usha asked.
He nodded and his partner gave the other woman a smile. “Being a full time noble has to be boring. A little side action would be perfect to keep us sharp.” She paused, then said, “So we’re agreed. Leblanc continues without our interference. Maybe one day, we can count them among our allies. And we work on making Shenni’s life as difficult as possible.”
Ozahl raised an eyebrow. “Who knows? Someday, instead of being the patriarch of House Cudon, I’ll ascend to the throne. Emperor has a nice ring to it.”
Danna sighed and shook her head. “No monarchy for you. You may be my consort, both when I’m matriarch and when I’m Empress.”
Usha laughed and tossed her drink back. “Now that’s a plan I can get behind.” She refilled her glass and lifted it in a toast. “To House Cudon.”
They clinked glasses and settled in for the first of many nights of comfortable conversation about suborning the rule of the current Empress.
Cali and Shenni met in the Empress’s private office. The seneschal offered her a drink but she declined, preferring to get the necessary discussion over with, and the older woman faded into the background. The monarch sat behind her desk and leaned back, looking smug in her fancy royal gown.
She had worn the uniform she’d fought in, minus the weapons. They’d been smart enough to take her belt, as well, but she would have surrendered it voluntarily. Her safety was assured at the moment by virtue of her fame. There would be an outcry if the one who’d destroyed House Malniet suddenly disappeared while meeting with the Empress, especially given the signaling of her favor toward them at the arena. Besides, her allies were ready to make the trouble happen if it didn’t occur of its own accord.