Fractured Loyalties

by Greg Alldredge

  He wasn’t sure if the announcement of her partner was for his safety or hers.

  <=OO=>

  Hayline found himself standing. Two bodies lay at his feet. The girl with the ruddy cheeks and broken front teeth stared up at him with dead eyes. Her accomplice lay face down. By the location of the pooling blood, he knew the man’s throat had been slit.

  “What the hells has happened?” Hayline lost time. By the looks of it, a good deal of time. He searched his mind but couldn’t remember anything past the woman sticking her head inside the shelter.

  Giblet said in a soft voice, “They were sent to kill us.”

  Hayline looked at the carnage at his feet. For the first time he noticed the two blood-soaked daggers and the splatters that covered his cloak. Each of the bodies was armed with weapons that belied their meager dress, but he found no other proof they were assassins.

  “How do you know they came to kill us?” Hayline asked.

  “I just know. I attacked. That’s what the old you would’ve done. I needed to protect us,” Giblet answered.

  “You can’t just go around killing people!” Hayline washed his weapons in a puddle forming near the bodies.

  “These weren’t people, they were demons. You were blinded by the woman.”

  “I wasn’t blinded by anyone.” Hayline glanced at the woman, discovering her eyes were following him. He kneeled over and closed them. “You must give me a warning before you do that. I must have some say on who dies.”

  “No, I don’t. I give you control because you’re amusing to talk to. I told you this would end badly. We should’ve headed straight to the curtain. Once past the wall, there will be no one to care what we do.

  For the first time, Hayline became worried about his secret friend. Before Giblet came around to keep him company and entertain him, he sat depressed most days and nights. Now Hayline sensed he was losing control. They fought over dominance of his mind and body.

  “I don’t even know if they were human or demons.” Hayline began gathering his few items.

  “It doesn’t matter. Now they’re food for the harpies. They got to eat too.” Giblet chuckled at his own joke.

  “This isn’t funny.”

  “I beg to differ, death is always funny. Now let’s get out of here before we’re caught.”

  Hayline scanned the area one last time to ensure he hadn’t forgotten anything and left the scene at a jog.

  Chapter 19, Meyers Shepard:

  Meyers smiled as he strolled through the halls of the Citadel. Life was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but he knew it could get a whole lot worse. Besides, he needed his best smile while he hunted.

  He kept the engagement to Hope a secret, for now. It gave him the advantage while seeking out a virgin suitable for Hope’s research into the occult. There were virgins lurking the halls of the building, he was sure of that. The problem was, they did not walk about shouting the fact. He needed some virgin bait, a wedding of sorts to pull them out of hiding. Nothing would bring the virgins out like a wedding. They clustered about hoping to bag a husband of their own.

  “What are you doing?” The voice from behind caused Meyers to clear the floor in fright, as if someone heard his thoughts and knew he acted on them.

  “Damn it, Chastity. There has been enough death in the halls without you causing my heart to stop with your childish pranks.” Meyers knew the voice of his youngest sister. He spun around, ready to cuff her ear with the flat of his hand.

  Chastity learned early in life to stay slightly out of reach. “I saw you walk by. You had a look about you.” As usual, she let her dark, naturally kinky hair bush free. Meyers wanted to shave her head out of spite.

  “What do you mean a look about me?” He thought maybe she could read minds.

  “When you walked by, I noticed you looked just like my cat before it pounced on lunch. Who are you going to eat?” Chastity asked.

  For a fourteen-year-old, Meyers found her mouth exceedingly sarcastic and disrespectful. He liked that in a woman. However, he was already engaged to one half-sister, he’d be damned if he’d start bedding another. “Chastity, don’t you have something to do, like pulling the legs off of insects or some other equally disturbing activity?”

  She risked getting closer and ran her fingertips down his jawline. “That’s what I thought I did.” To which she spun and skipped off down the hall.

  Meyers cursed her under his breath, “That girl is going to turn into a ball-breaker.” The thought, I bet she’s a virgin, did cross his mind.

  Focusing on more important things, Meyers continued his journey. He needed to make an appointment with a former lover. It was late enough in the day to meet the woman alone in the garden and shuffle her off to Hope. He decided to seek out the non-virgin. The low-hanging fruit of the pair of women Hope sought. This one should be easy enough. The exercise wouldn’t even require a bottle of Uncle Roddie’s special reserve. A small dose of vine should be enough.

  He made the turn and stepped into the inner courtyard, not far from the bench that Hope constantly lurked on. Though she was focused on her experiments, Meyers didn’t risk meeting the target on her territory.

  His mind focused on his quarry, he fought to keep the thoughts of Hayline pushed as far back as possible. Right behind his concerns over Hope being named regent—and himself being named shit.

  There sat his target, on a bench. She wasn’t a beautiful woman, nowhere near as homely as Hope, but when the lights were off, her voluptuous body made up for her lack of beauty.

  “For a while, I thought you would never contact me again after you got what you wanted,” the woman said.

  Meyers was sure he had a dumb look on his face. At the moment, he drew a blank on the woman’s name. “I’m sorry it has been so long since our… get-together.” He smiled while struggling to recall a simple name.

  “I’ve heard you’ve been very busy. What with your older brother—”

  Meyers cut her off, “I’m the oldest.”

  “Sorry… running off and the death in your family. My condolences for the loss of your father.”

  “Yes, his death came as quite a shock.” Meyers sat next to her, deciding if he would need the vine or if he might talk her into joining him in Hope’s chambers. A cool breeze blew through the garden. Meyers knew it came from the south.

  “I’m sure Hope has kept you busy.” The woman smiled as she spoke.

  Meyers wasn’t sure if that was a slight—a jab at his relationship with his sister—or an insight into her recent rise to regent. He tired of this game quickly. This woman gave up her treasure to him long ago. “Hope asked me if I could find someone to help her as the new regent. You’re the first person that came to mind.” Even if I can’t remember your name.

  Every old crone told stories of the southern wind bringing hardship. Mostly it just brought the rain. Without rain, there would be no crops. With no crops, there would be no people. With no people, there would be no city. Meyers saw the rain as a good thing.

  “I’m so flattered you would think of me in a position with Hope. What would it entail?”

  Hope murdering you and cutting your body open. “I would rather Hope tell you herself. I think that privilege should be all hers. I will say it will be positioned directly under her.” Knife. Meyers chuckled in his mind at his sudden wit.

  “Please, I’ve always dreamed of having a more permanent position here in the Citadel.”

  And you will, buried under the floorboards. “Then shouldn’t we go see Hope now? She’s waiting for you.” Meyers patted the young woman’s knee before standing and offering his hand to join him. A mist began to fall, signaling the time to depart the garden.

  The woman took his hand, stood, and started yammering. Meyers tuned her out. He wasn’t sure how she talked for so long without breathing. He was confident she didn’t talk this much during sex, but he made it a habit to keep her mouth occupied.

  They walked, she talked, and
Meyers nodded, grunting in the affirmative from time to time. This gave him a moment to think. He was sure no one would approach him with Lady What’s-her-name flapping her jaw incessantly.

  Those hidden worries could be brought to the forefront as long as he smiled. Hope might’ve crossed the line with murdering the witch. If his mother found out her longtime confidant and protégé had been taken out by Hope… nothing would stop her rage, Meyers was sure of it. When she found out he knew about it and didn’t tell her… He grew genuinely uncertain what she might do to him.

  Ensuring the witch’s body was properly disposed of became one of his top priorities. He must do everything in his power to make sure his mother never found out about the woman’s death.

  He grunted an acknowledgment, not sure if it fit the woman’s blathering, but he didn’t much care. As long as she continued to follow him to her death.

  Speaking of death, once he’d married Hope, and she died, he might be able to weasel his way into the regency. Dammit, Ollie would still stand in the way. Perhaps Ollie would need to come to a violent end. Dammit, that still left Chastity. Though the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea of providing his younger sister for Hope’s experiments. No matter how he sliced it, the chances of him gaining the throne were just too low. Perhaps it was time to shift tactics.

  His mother never actively fought for the throne. Through his birth, Meyers could see how she gained influence in the Citadel, her place now solidified. If he provided Hope with a son, his son would hold a stronger claim to the throne than either of his uncles or Chastity. This would work out wonderfully, unless Ollie fathered a son. That would drop Meyers back down again. Before they knocked on his fiancée’s door, he concluded he needed the wedding to happen quickly, and he must give Hope a son. Even though this would require more sex with his half-sister, it was a price he was willing to pay for power.

  They stood before Hope’s study, and after a few light taps, the door cracked open. Hope’s rat-face pressed into the cleft. “Yes?” Hope asked. Meyers expected a much gruffer response. He was glad she appeared cordial at this meeting.

  “This is the woman I told you about, the one you’re looking for. The one with special qualifications.” Meyers assumed his half-sister was smart enough to figure out what he tried to imply.

  Surprisingly, Hope smiled and swung open the door. “I’m so glad you’ve come. Your timing is perfect.”

  Meyers expected to see multiple dead bodies hanging from the bookcases, drying skin stretched out and tacked to the walls, but he found none of that. The room had been cleaned up, leaving little indication of the torture and death that happened in the place.

  Hope continued as she showed them in, “I’m so glad to meet you…” Hope made a motion with her hand as if she waited for Meyers to introduce the woman.

  The only problem: Meyers still didn’t remember her name. “Um, umm.”

  “I’m sorry for my brother. It seems the blood rushed from his head, and he can’t speak at the moment.” Hope offered her hand to the woman. “As you probably know, I’m Hope Shoemaker, Regent of Perdition.”

  The woman who spoke from the gardens to the lower halls of the Citadel gushed even more. “By the gods and goddesses, I never thought I would find an opportunity to meet you. I’m Jessica…”

  Jessica kept blathering on, but a number of glass jars perched on a shelf caught Meyers’s attention. When close enough to distinguish their contents, he recognized one contained a human heart, and next to it sat a brain.

  Mid-sentence, Hope called out to him, “…Meyers, make yourself useful and fix Jessica here a drink.”

  Tearing himself away from the morbid display, he shuffled to Hope’s collection of tonics.

  “Make a shot of the one labeled special.”

  It took a little searching before he found the bottle Hope indicated hidden among all the others. For a woman who kept her bookcases immaculate, her bar was a mess. He wasn’t sure what was so special about the bottle or the woman he poured the drink for. However, he was pretty sure it would be unwise to label the bottle, “Knockout potion so we can murder you and steal your innards.” That just wouldn’t be proper.

  He didn’t pour Hope or himself a drink. He was genuinely concerned anything on that table might be deadly or worse. The small glass topped off, he carefully walked to Jessica and offered it to her.

  She shook her head and waved him off. “I’m sorry, I stopped drinking. It got to the point that whenever I drank, I made bad decisions.”

  Meyers didn’t know what to do. He stood there with a blank face, his hand still outstretched, offering the drink to Jessica. He glanced toward Hope, waiting for some indication on how to proceed.

  “Don’t stand there like an idiot. If the lady doesn’t want something to drink, go put it back,” Hope ordered him.

  Meyers thought, Go do this, go do that. Meyers, go get me a virgin. Hope will die one day.

  Jessica continued, “I hope you don’t mind, but if I’m going to take a position under the regent, I think I should keep a clear head about me all the time.”

  Meyers sat the glass down and turned in time to see Hope pick up something from her desk. He smiled as Jessica looked directly into his eyes.

  Hope muttered something that, to Meyers, sounded like, “That’s understandable, dear.” And thrust whatever she held in her hand just below Jessica’s skull and into her spine.

  Thank the gods, Meyers set the glass down before Hope struck. He might have crushed it at the shock. Jessica’s body locked, he wasn’t sure if from the shock of being stabbed or if the placement of the incision paralyzed her body. She never made a sound, just stood, eyes full in surprise.

  “Don’t just stand there, help me get her to the table before she collapses,” Hope said.

  Now on automatic, Meyers stumbled next to Jessica, grabbing an open arm. With Hope on the far side, they carried her stiff body to the waiting examination table. He was surprised at how little blood dripped, but when he saw the blade Hope wielded and found it only measured three finger widths long, he understood why.

  “Whatever you do, don’t drink that shot you just poured. It would be fatal,” Hope grunted out after Jessica’s body lay supine.

  “I decided long ago to never drink anything out of your study.” Meyers wiped the sweat from his brow even though it was cool in the dim room.

  “Wise man. Is this the virgin?”

  “No, I can tell you for a fact this woman is not a virgin.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t try to pass her off as one. Rumors abound about her hinged hips and her inability to keep her legs together.”

  “And here I thought I was the first…”

  “I’m sorry, brother, I don’t think you’re in the first dozen.”

  Meyers gritted his teeth. “Please stop calling me brother.”

  “Sure thing. You have an extra day to return with the virgin. It will take at least twenty-four hours for me to complete my investigation on this one. Take some time off, grab a drink and some fun. Just not too much of either. We don’t want your loose lips spreading falsehoods.” She took the knife with which she recently murdered Jessica and began slicing up the side of her tunic.

  Meyers slumped into the chair that sat behind Hope’s desk and watched. “As soon as I bring you the virgin, I want to announce our engagement. The wedding needs to take place soon.”

  “Why all of a sudden the rush? You’ve waited twenty-one years to get married. What’s another couple of months?”

  “A couple of reasons. One, I want to solidify my position. Two, I have needs. If you don’t want me sleeping with just anyone, you’re going to need to take care of them.”

  Hope stopped what she did and laughed loudly. “I’m not your plaything. If you have needs, I suggest you become newly acquainted with your right hand. If you tire of her, you can switch to your left.” Hope went back to disrobing the corpse.

  This woman can’t die soon enough. “Eve
n you have to admit your position becomes stronger once we are married.” Meyers used every bit of willpower not to kill her where she stood.

  “You make a good point. I will consider it. Since you were a good boy and brought me a woman, you may sleep in my quarters tonight. Don’t get too used to it. It will only happen occasionally during times of celebration.”

  Meyers flexed his hands, forcing himself to calm down. He needed a change of subject quickly to save Hope’s life. “We should no longer need to worry about your older brother,” he said.

  “Of course not, he has abdicated, and I’m now regent. Once he crosses over the curtain wall, his life expectancy should be measured in days.” With a shift of Jessica’s body, Hope removed all of her clothing. “Did you know this woman had no tattoos? No protection from evil?”

  Meyers shook his head. “It was dark, and I didn’t stop to take inventory.” He tried to continue his train of thought, “We won’t have to wait until Hayline dies in the wilds. I took steps to eliminate him once he’s safely out of the city.”

  For once he caught her attention. “What do you mean eliminated?”

  “I hired two assassins to take him out.”

  Hope chuckled and shook her head. “I hope you didn’t pay them in advance.”

  “No, they must return his daggers. I’m not stupid. They get no payment without proof.”

  “Hopefully they are better assassins than thieves. A smart person would steal the daggers, return, and collect their pay.”

  Meyers thought of nothing to say in reply except, “Oh, yeah?” This woman can’t die soon enough, he thought.

  Chapter 20, Captain Dusty:

  Dusty never cared for making his money on the land. He much preferred sailing the cracks, looking for easy prey: traders willing to give up their cargo in exchange for their lives.

  Once the wagons full of captives were turned over to the slaver ships, Dusty ordered his crew to set a course for Freeport. Every free captain's homeport.