“I hope you’ll find my meager efforts to protect myself satisfactory, lieutenant,” I teased her playfully.
“The guards are here under Captain Ella’s orders; I cannot remove them myself,” Karina muttered in response.
“Nor would I have you do so,” I replied. “I understand the need to take precautions. What I’ve done only addresses the methods used by the most recent assassin. There will be others, I’m sure of it; and when they come, we’re going to be as prepared as possible. If any lives are to be lost, I want it to be theirs.”
I stepped back into my office, where the other pair of guards were stationed and placed a second pair of traps around the window there. With both openings protected as well as we could manage, Tási and I retreated to our room for the night while the four guards stationed themselves in my office, just outside our door.
I wasn’t sure just how I’d be able to fall asleep that night—the day’s events had taken me to the highest highs with the arrival of our newest citizens and my long overdue liaison with Venna, to the deepest lows after the attempt on my life and the deaths of my guardswomen, even though they were temporary. As usual, Tási came to my rescue without me having to utter a word.
She gave me a gentle nudge, and I rolled over on my stomach for her. Tási immediately began working away at the knotted bundles of muscle in my shoulders and sent her comforting threads of warm water flowing over me. The combination of her soft touch and the relaxing feeling of the tiny filaments of soothing water flushed away the tensions inside me, and as was always the case when she cared for me in this way, I fell asleep before I knew it with the gentle flow of her peaceful currents washing over me.
18
Stel and Venna joined us in the morning when Tási and I met with Birt. The tailor was more than pleased with the rooms that Lelan had given him for his shop and residence and he greeted us happily when we knocked on his door.
“Come in, come in!” Birt exclaimed. “Please excuse the mess, I’m still trying to organize everything.”
There was quite a bit of fabric simply lying around the place. The shop still lacked anything close to the organization that his wagon had for all of his wares, but it was obvious that he was well on his way to sorting things out. After a few pleasantries, Wenda served us a pot of tea, and we sat down to finish our negotiations. I hadn’t forgotten Birt’s foolish attempt to bargain with me, and I intended to make him pay, if only just a little, for his ill-advised decision.
“The chamberlain has given me a rough idea of what I should expect to pay you for your services,” I began as I infused my words with a tiny trickle of Charisma. “But I’d like to hear your own thoughts on the matter first.”
“Yes, of course,” Birt replied happily. “But perhaps I should also explain what I’m offering as well.”
“First and foremost, you will need a livery for the Palace staff,” Birt began. “Something appropriate for everyone, from the cooks to the cleaners and the highest functionaries.”
“In addition, your Realm already has many different branches to its armed forces,” he continued. “So far, I’ve seen forces manning the Garrison, others assigned to your own personal guard, as well as those who protect your various Ministers, and although I haven’t noticed anything in particular yet, I imagine that the Palace and the fortress that surrounds it will eventually have their own troops assigned to them. Remarkably, none of these various units seem to have any uniforms whatsoever. While their armor is quite impressive, they are in desperate need of something to distinguish themselves from one another.”
“As well as figuring all that out for you, I intend to make sure that you and your Cabinet will have the appropriate attire for any occasion that may arise. I will craft special outfits for each of you and ensure that none of them conflict with each other. In short, you will be the best-dressed leaders at any affair you choose to attend. All I need is to be provided with a fair amount of warning, so that I have enough time to do my work properly. Something that is almost guaranteed for any official state function.”
Birt was certainly offering more than I had thought of, and while we were a long way away from needing most of the services he offered, if we continued expanding as we were, that day would be upon us almost before we knew it. He had laid out a very persuasive argument for a rather hefty salary, one that I wasn’t certain that I was prepared to meet.
“In light of all this,” Birt concluded while I mused. “I would say that covering the cost of my materials, room and board for Wenda and myself, plus a stipend of, let’s say, five Talons per month should cover it.”
I almost choked at the ridiculously low sum Birt quoted me—five Talons was a mere fraction of what the chamberlain thought we would have to offer him, and well below the minimum I had decided to pay him if the influence of my Charisma proved to be too much for him. I had only intended to push him just slightly, and I feared that even the little I’d done might have been far more than I intended when Birt cleared up the mystery for me.
“I’m ready to settle down, Dreya Sintári,” he explained candidly. “My travels have made me a rich man, so I have no real need for more money. The sum I have requested is only a formality, I assure you.”
“You’re hired,” I smiled back at him. “The chamberlain should be able to see to all of your needs, but my door is always open to you.”
We ended our visit with some more small talk, and when I left with Tási, Stel and Venna stayed behind for a while to continue the conversation. A great deal had happened since we last saw Birt and Wenda, and they remained there to fill the couple in on a few of the more important events.
After the near tragedy of the evening before, Karina had remained on duty most of the night, so it was Lieutenant Aiva who was in charge of my protection that morning, and she led us down to the prison beneath the Palace. Finding the failed assassin was easy enough from there, as hers was the only occupied cell. Aiva put up a bit of a fuss when I told her to wait for me outside, but after a stern glare from me, and a direct order from Tási, she finally relented. Once we were alone with the prisoner, Tási unlocked the door to her cell and we stepped inside.
The elf had obviously undergone a very thorough search once the guards had taken her away, as the remains of her black outfit were gone, and she was clad in only a rough spun prison shift that hung loosely over her body. Her blackened eye told me that she had clearly tried to resist the inspection, even though she was bound hand and foot. I had instructed the guards not to hesitate to use any force they deemed necessary when dealing with the assassin, but not to abuse her in any way. My concern in that regard was not for the killer’s well-being—I simply didn’t want to turn my own people into the same kind of animal that this piece of shit clearly was.
As soon as she saw me, the assassin’s eyes briefly lit up with fear before she managed to rein in her emotions and resume her angry glare, but the game had already been lost, and I knew that my tactics had borne fruit; I cast See Truth, and took a seat beside her on the narrow bed where she lay.
She couldn’t help it, and her dread shined in her eyes as I brushed the hair from her face. The bloodthirsty killer actually cringed when my fingers grazed across her skin, making me think that I might need to do very little to get the information I wanted from her.
“Are you ready to talk, sweet thing,” I purred. “Or do I need to persuade you again?”
“I… I can’t,” she replied in genuine terror. “The terms of my contract do not allow it.”
“If you think some piece of paper you signed is going to prevent me from tearing you to pieces from the inside out, you are sorely mistaken,” I responded coldly.
“That’s not what she means, Dreya Sintári,” Tási said from over my shoulder. “Her contract for this assignment comes with a blood clause. She’s had a spell cast on her that will take her life if she even tries to reveal anything of significance.”
“What can you tell me, then?” I asked her, lett
ing my irritation show plainly. “What do you have to offer that will dampen my desire to ruin you?”
“I… I was sent from the east,” she stumbled. “They do not like your kind there, or any kind save our own.”
“I surmised as much myself,” I said as I laid my hand on the bare skin just below her neck. “I need something far more definitive than that if you don’t want to feel my true power flowing through your pitiful veins.”
She tried to speak, but immediately began to sputter and choke before the words could even form in her mouth. While the magic that had hold of her snuffed out her life, I simply looked on as the light faded from her eyes. When she finally passed, I asked Tási one simple question.
“Now that she’s dead, has she been released from the constraints of the blood clause?”
“Remind me to never piss you off,” Tási responded when she realized my intentions.
“You should already know that by now,” I smirked back at her. “Answer my question.”
“Yes,” she replied flatly. “The spell has run its course.”
“Good.”
I withdrew Death’s Embrace and focused on bringing the assassin back to life. She may have preferred death to what I had in mind for her, but I really didn’t give a shit about her preferences. When her eyes flew open and she saw me still sitting next to her, she flew into a panic, and I happily sent a jolt of pain through her to ensure that I had the woman’s undivided attention.
“You and I are going to talk now,” I said as I held her gaze. “But every time you lie to me, I’m going to make you pay. Do you understand?”
“Please,” she pled with me.
“Listen to me, bitch!” I shouted at her. “I already let you die once. I have no problem killing you a few more times if that’s what it takes to find out what I need to know. Just understand this; your first death today was quick and merciful compared to what I intend to do to you, so either you start talking to me, or I’m going to start killing you.”
I channeled my rage into my words as I hurled them at her, and she recoiled in abject terror before me. The former assassin was reduced to a quivering mass, and I waited a moment for her to recover before I began my questions again.
“Who hired you?”
“He has my daughter,” she said as the first tears fell from her eyes.
That was certainly not what I expected to hear, and the revelation gave me pause. While the bitch in front of me might have been a cold-blooded killer deserving of no mercy, her daughter was likely an innocent. Or was she? The words had flown from her mouth in an oddly neutral color, neither blue nor green, something that I’d never seen before.
“Explain.”
“He took her from me,” she replied a little too quickly. “He said he’d kill her if I gave anything away.”
This time her words came out tinged in deep, oily green, and I responded just as I told her I would.
My hand was still pressed against her skin, and I sent a wide thread of rage roiling through her chest. She bucked beneath me as her screams of anguish echoed inside the tiny cell, but I pushed her down into the mattress and pinned her there until I felt that my point had been made.
“You lie to me one more time, and I will make that seem like a gentle caress,” I seethed at her when she recovered enough to hear my words.
“Fuck you,” she panted, but her weak tone belied the strength she was trying to project.
“If that’s what you want,” I whispered as I sent an entirely different tendril of emotion coursing through her body.
I offered her no restraint and flooded her with pure, unrelenting passion. But unlike when I was with someone I actually cared about, I had no interest in sensing her in return, so I shut myself off from her completely while the thick thread of ecstasy wreaked havoc within her.
The assassin gasped loudly in response to the raw power that I forced into her and let out desperate scream as the incredible wave of desire immediately overcame her. In only seconds, she was shuddering in a violent release, and I pulled my hand away from her in disgust. It took several moments for her to come out of the deep state of euphoria I had thrown her into, and when she did, she stared back at me though half-lidded eyes.
“Shall we begin again?” I asked.
Tási and I spent several hours in the cell that morning, where I alternately sent sensations of both excruciating pain and unmitigated pleasure into the assassin’s body. Despite the power I exerted over her, she resisted my efforts for quite some time, until I finally broke her will and she confessed everything to me as she collapsed into a blubbering mass.
Her blue-tinged words confirmed what she said when she admitted that it had been the King of Olóra that had sent her to kill me. King Gilfri hated the other races of Arrika so much, that when he learned I had established a Realm where not only all were tolerated, but where a human ruled over some of his own elvenkind, he had flown into a rage and ordered my assassination.
The assassin, I never bothered to ask her name, assured me that she would not be that last to come for me, but she also told me what I should look for. Gilfri would only trust one of his own for the mission, so I needed to be wary of elves coming from the east. They would come in many different disguises, so I would have to be alert, especially when larger caravans arrived that would provide the killers with an opportunity to blend in.
“We need to talk about what you did back there,” Tási said as she stopped me on our way out.
“I warned you about this yesterday. I did what I needed to do, nothing more,” I replied in irritation.
“You did warn me, but still that was not what I expected,” Tási said as she held her ground. “I understand why you did it, and my concern is not for her, but for you, Dreya.”
“You know that I have darkness in me, Tási,” I answered her in carefully measured tones. “But like so many other pieces of me, it’s like a separate thing. What I did in there, all of it, has its own little home inside me. My darkness knows its place, and I know its place as well—you don’t have to worry about it coming out unless I want it to.”
“Are you sure about that? Really sure?”
“Do you think that she didn’t deserve what I did to her?” I answered her question with one of my own.
“She’s undoubtedly killed many people, and while what you did to her was harsh, she’s certainly not worthy of any mercy,” Tási reluctantly admitted.
“I’m glad we agree about that,” I replied. “And I’ll expect you to remember that in the future, but I’ll also expect you to stop me if I ever try do anything like that to someone who doesn’t deserve it.”
“I’ll try,” Tási promised. “But, honestly, you frighten me when you get like that.”
“I’m sorry, Tási,” was all I could say. “I understand that I can be a little… intense at times, but you know I would never hurt you.”
“I do, but you’re still really intimidating, especially when your eyes start glowing,” Tási shivered as she finished speaking.
“I’ll try not to do that,” I smiled back at her. “At least not when I’m looking in your direction.”
“Now that the assassin’s told you everything she knows, what will you do with her?” Tási asked.
“You’re head of my security, I’ll leave her fate up to you, Tási,” I replied with disinterest. “Hang her, burn her, leave her to rot in that cell, I don’t care.”
“Alright,” Tási responded reluctantly. “I’ll figure something out.”
After we left the prison cells behind, I sent out a group of messengers to bring my Ministers together so we could discuss what the assassin had revealed to me. It took a while to gather everyone together, as the increasing responsibilities of their positions kept them quite busy, but after a few hours, we were able to assemble in our meeting room. Since this was a matter of security, I allowed Ella, Karina, and Aiva to sit in as well.
“We cannot do much with only the word of an assassin to ba
ck us up,” Broda responded after I relayed what the woman had said. “Gilfri will simply deny her accusations. With the word of a King against a failed assassin, we will come out worse in the eyes of most for even daring to put forth our claims.”
“Broda’s correct,” Venna hesitated before she seconded Broda’s words. “While we may know the truth, without any real evidence, there’s not much we can to about it.”
“That’s not what I wanted to hear,” I replied as I slumped back in my chair. “But we’re not exactly ready to go to war with anyone right now, so I guess it’s better for us to be satisfied with at least knowing where the threat is coming from.”
“I’m glad you saw the wisdom in acting with restraint,” Venna sighed in obvious relief. “We were concerned that you might push for a more… rash course of action.”
The reason for the delay in our meeting suddenly became obvious to me—while my companions, my Ministers, were indeed very busy with all the work I had piled on them, that had not been it. They had taken time to conspire with each other ahead of our conference to decide how they were going to deal with me. They anticipated that I would fly off the handle in rage, order some ill-advised action, or march off to war in a fit of anger. While I knew that I had a temper and could indeed lose myself in my rage under certain circumstances, this was not one of them. Those moments were rare, and only occurred in the heat of battle, not when I had time to truly consider my options, but if they anticipated seeing my darker side, I decided that I wasn’t going to disappoint them.
“Rash?” I said as I rose from my seat and glared back at Venna.
“Stupid?” I continued as I turned to Tási and let my eyes blaze with green light.
“I am getting fed up with how little credit you seem to give me,” I went on as I stared down each of them in turn with the viridian glow.
“My actions are under my complete control,” I continued harshly. “Even when I do something that seems unrestrained, it’s because I choose to let myself go. The only thing angering me right now is how poorly you think of me.”
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