Burning Blood: Bonds of Blood: Book 2

by Daniel De Lorne

  At first that seemed unusual for one of Xadrak’s incarnations, but when she considered who he’d been in previous lives, he’d always excelled in whatever he’d done. Henri had been a master butcher, William a master swordsman, and Rodrigo a master shipbuilder. Violent men, all of them, but they had been highly skilled. Yet, Georg’s mousey appearance was so at odds with what she knew of Xadrak.

  She left him to his work and decided to ask others about him. She didn’t expect to hear much truth from the neighbors’ gossip, yet his outward showing unsettled her enough that she wanted a broader understanding before venturing further.

  The dressmaker laughed when Aurelia remarked how involved he was with his work. “Why, I’m sure he doesn’t sleep most nights, just continues working on his clocks,” she said. “He’ll probably discover a way to make time stand still.”

  “He looks a little mad,” Aurelia said.

  “That’s Georg’s way. A more sweet and gentle fool you’ll never meet.” The dressmaker’s dimples deepened.

  The jeweler was less kind, but only because his clock hadn’t yet been fixed. “He’s always tinkering on something, but you try giving him a bit of paid work and he’ll take years. Years!”

  “Then why not use another clockmaker?”

  “Because Georg is so good. He might take his time, but his clocks run perfectly.”

  Either they told the truth and Georg was nothing more than a harmless clockmaker, or he hid behind an elaborate mask. She had no choice but to talk to him directly.

  When she entered the shop, he didn’t look up from his work. His hands wielded the tools with precision as he tinkered in the back of a clock. Xadrak had never been adept at fine, detailed work, as it required too much patience. Yet watching Georg operate, she stared for a long time at the craftsmanship and his attention to small screws and gears. She fell into the beauty of his work, and for a second she wondered if Xadrak was capable of some good.

  She jerked back from the thought, as if someone had yanked her hair. There was nothing good in Xadrak, and to think otherwise was abhorrent.

  Her sudden movement didn’t disturb Georg. Still he worked. The clocks drew her eye. They were in excellent condition, even more impressive now she didn’t have to peer through the window’s fog. Beautiful decorations embellished many of them: a golden stag on one, two delicately painted figurines, one of a boy and one of a girl, on another. Some seemed too rich to stay hidden away here and should have been in a palace. But gradually her attention turned from what she saw to what she heard.

  The clocks ticked in unison.

  With so many pendulums swinging and cogs turning, she had expected a cacophony of clicks to fill the room. But there was only one sound. Every clock kept the same time, and the sound of it passed in one loud tick-tock. The hairs on the back of her neck bristled.

  Was this Xadrak’s magic at work? It wasn’t an important trick, but it could be a sign of leaking power. She needed to see his eyes, then she might have a better understanding.

  With her will held taut and ready, she coughed. The noise brought his nose part way up, but his eyes remained downcast.

  “Mmmmm?” His hands continued manipulating the tools.

  “I would like to buy a clock, please,” she said, for want of anything better to say.

  “I have none for sale.” His head lowered into the back of the clock once more.

  “Then what about all these on the walls?”

  But he didn’t hear her.

  She released a sliver of energy to slow the swing of one clock, speed it up on another, until the single sound of time syncopated. Georg’s head flicked up and his gaze darted to the offending clocks. He jumped off his chair and carried them one by one to his workbench, deftly maneuvering around her.

  “Excuse me!” she barked.

  “Yes? What is it?”

  His brown eyes met hers. She held him with the force of her will and searched.

  “Nothing,” she whispered.

  When she had confronted Xadrak in the past, there was some sign of his presence, but in Georg there was none. Just a man obsessed with clocks. Had Hame gotten it wrong?

  She released him.

  “Then if you want nothing, I must get back to work.”

  He started to reset the clocks with his head cocked slightly to listen to the sound of the others. She’d been dismissed, but she’d seen all she was likely to. What she’d seen, however, she couldn’t be sure. Either Hame was wrong, or Xadrak had also become a master of concealment.

  VII

  Two stones circled in the air around Carn. He called them stones, but they were barely more than rubble, as small a weight as he could find. The third stone, however, would not stay up. Aurelia wanted him to levitate three objects and have them fly around him. Initially he’d expected something trickier, so he’d begun with confidence.

  He’d made one pebble spin around him with ease. He’d changed its trajectory, its speed, its direction, and it did what he commanded. He’d scoffed at the simplicity of the task ahead and wondered if he’d made a mistake seeking Aurelia as his teacher.

  Then he’d started work on the second. He’d levitated it while still controlling the first, and it took flight. It had shaken at first, but eventually he’d smoothed out its journey, and he’d managed to keep track of the two pebbles in his mind. He’d cheated. He knew he’d cheated. He kept them close enough together that for the most part he saw them at the same time. When they went behind his head, he exerted more will to speed them back into his line of sight. This was not what Aurelia had in mind, but it was a start.

  But when he’d tried to levitate the third, his mind floundered. He couldn’t maintain focus on three objects at once. Attempt after attempt brought nothing but frustration, and his throat started to ache from holding back a stream of curses. He didn’t want Hame to hear how badly he took his failure.

  He fell back on the grass. The skin around his temples stretched as tight as a drum. He closed his eyes and massaged the sides of his brow.

  “Giving up already?”

  Aurelia’s voice hooked him into sitting up as she stalked past him. Her tone wasn’t as frigid as it had been earlier in the day, but still she mocked him. He started to argue, but she entered Hame’s house and slammed the door. He couldn’t understand why Hame tolerated her. Some mysteries defied explanation.

  Fighting weariness, he returned to his practice.

  One pebble at a time.

  “How do you expect me to concentrate with you stomping around like an elephant with a sore head?”

  Aurelia stopped. “I am not an elephant.”

  She released the ends of her hair with a flick and sat on the cushions in front of Hame while he investigated the latest Xadrak prophecy. She’d recounted her experiences with Georg, Hame bristling at her insinuation he’d gotten it wrong. She hadn’t meant to sound accusatory but seeing Carn outside had the effect of turning her into a razor. At least she hadn’t returned to find the two of them in bed. Or each other.

  Now that she was still, Hame’s breathing slowed. Having watched him work more times than she could count, she knew the moment his mind traveled elsewhere. His cheeks relaxed and lowered slightly, and a bump in his jaw smoothed out. They were subtle indications to others, but obvious to her who’d spent many years watching.

  Minutes passed and the process reversed. He returned to his body, the few points of tension coming back, and his eyes opened.

  “Nothing has changed. Xadrak is inside Georg.”

  “Then why couldn’t I see anything?”

  “Perhaps he’s dormant.”

  “But why show you now?”

  “Probably because he’s going to wake soon.”

  That prospect thrilled her even less than learning Xadrak had returned. It meant a battle at worst, babysitting at best. At least she’d had nearly thirty years without having to watch him.

  “Any idea when?”

  “If I knew, I’d tell yo
u.”

  She twirled the ends of her hair again, considering what she should do next. She could kill Georg now, return him to the astral where Sinara could deal with him. But if Xadrak didn’t come to the fore for some time, then it would be safer to keep him here. Could she lock him up? She’d done it before and hired a jailer to keep him fed and watered.

  “I do have some other news for you though, but you’re not going to like it.”

  She tightened the hold on her hair, and her scalp sang.

  “Your brothers will arrive at Neulehn in two days.”

  Her heart dipped.

  Liesel.

  “You don’t have to go. You could leave them be.”

  But she couldn’t. Whatever her brothers were yet to do, she at least wanted to give her friend some protection, however futile.

  Chains lashed themselves to her wrists, dragging her down and weighting her to the Earth. She’d known becoming friends with Liesel would end in sorrow. Her friend aged while she remained, yet she couldn’t stop herself, no more than she could stop loving Hame.

  “I’ll go tomorrow.” She needed some light before the darkness descended.

  “And what of Carn?”

  “What of him?” Her response came quick and barbed. With Xadrak and Liesel on her mind, the last thing she needed to be reminded of was Hame’s plaything.

  “Don’t be obtuse, Aurelia. The boy is out there, desperate to learn, and you’ve had him playing with rocks for the better part of the day.”

  “Rocks can be very educational, and they make great playmates. I have never seen a fiercer battle of wits.”

  “You’re a bit old for jealousy, dearest.”

  “And you’re a bit old for him, so spare me the affronted looks. Besides, I don’t have time for this.”

  “He wants to learn, and he could be useful. Don’t let your jealousy get in the way.”

  She wasn’t jealous. He and Carn could do whatever the hell they pleased. She had more important things to do than tutor a fledgling witch, especially one who would rather fuck the oracle than master a simple trick.

  “If anything will get in the way, it’s you. The boy wants you more than he wants to study.”

  “He can have both, and that’s why you’re so upset.”

  “So, I’m supposed to wait until you’ve finished with him so I can give him his lessons, is that it?”

  “He will follow wherever you lead. I will not stand in his way, but I won’t put up with obstacles to having him in my bed.”

  She opened her mouth to scold, but he spoke first. “Understand me, dear heart, I will not let this one go.”

  Hame saw through her, to that which even she tried to hide. The past four centuries had been bearable because of Hame’s companionship and his love. Now Carn threatened that. If he took Hame from her, what would she have left? She knew she should retreat, that pushing Hame too far would push him away entirely. Hame could love who and how he wished, but her envy of his freedom to love another and have that love returned wanted to deny him that. She should have apologized. She should have taken a moment to collect her thoughts. But there were a lot of things she should have done in this long life.

  “Do whatever you like with him, but he’s not my concern.”

  She vanished, the anger propelling her home.

  VIII

  After a restless night’s sleep, Aurelia awoke feeling drained and despondent. The mountain had never felt so empty—just her, the furniture and her mother’s coffin. She made a move to enter Elaine’s crypt, but shame kept her back. She should not have allowed Carn to get to her. What she and Hame had was special, as strong as it could be. A stronger bond than lovers.

  Or so she had thought.

  Now it seemed to crumble when she applied the slightest pressure. Didn’t she deserve all his love, as he had hers?

  Curse him.

  She dressed in a pale green muslin gown, cinched at the waist with an emerald satin sash, suitable clothes for visiting Liesel. She brushed and fashioned her hair into a bouffant, its blackness entirely out of vogue, but she’d be damned if she’d wear a wig. Around her neck she hung a jewel-encrusted necklace. She powdered her face, rouged her cheeks, painted her eyes, and embellished her lips. Once complete, she looked in the mirror and groaned at the need for all of this.

  “But it’ll be worth it,” she said in an attempt to convince herself.

  She packed her luggage, filling it with clothes and jewels. She couldn’t deny that staying at Liesel’s castle was a chore, requiring planning and a significant expenditure of energy. She couldn’t simply appear in the hall; she needed to arrive by coach, and one befitting the Marquise de Villiers.

  She’d adopted a French title some years before, when she’d first met the Baroness while circling her nephew, Reiner. His parents were altogether too dull, but thankfully he spent a lot of time with his aunt. Despite the rivalries between their two countries, the Baroness had not been put off by the Marquise’s foreignness. And Aurelia had not expected to like her quite so much.

  Liesel had a vivaciousness that attracted Aurelia like a bear to honey. The Baroness delighted in parties, for new things and discoveries, and for making friends. Liesel’s infectious personality revitalized Aurelia. And when Hame could not provide her with what she wanted, she sought solace in Liesel’s love.

  Liesel knew about Hame, or rather the gist, and joked and consoled in equal measure about Aurelia’s redheaded paramour and his denial of love. Liesel understood the reasons behind his evasiveness, which was perhaps why, despite all the preparation and the binding clothes and the subterfuge, when she was finally ready to depart, the weight on her shoulders lifted a little. She stood before the mirror in all her majesty. She had time before her brothers arrived, and she was going to enjoy herself.

  Vanishing with her luggage, she reappeared in a carriage fashioned from magic on the road leading to the castle. Pulled by four black horses, a coach driver steered them from above. All were nothing but phantoms.

  The road cut through a thick forest and wound into its center where the Baron and Baroness entertained during the summer. Aurelia had attended many of their parties over the years and the approach filled her with a heady excitement.

  Her arrival set off a flurry of activity, servants bustling hither and thither to unload her luggage. She cast a spell over their minds to hide the sudden absence of the coach and its attendant once she left them, and a glamor that would make her appear as old as the person she spoke to expected her to be. She then ascended the few steps into the hall. The openness of it, with its grand staircase and richly decorated interior, lifted her mood, but when the Baroness entered with arms outstretched joy swelled in her soul.

  “My dear, I’m so pleased you’ve come.” The Baroness was in her fifties, slightly rotund with a great bosom that bounced when she laughed, but oh, the warmth that came from her. Aurelia craved it like a drug. She took the Baroness’s arms, pulled her close, and kissed her lips.

  “You have no idea how good it is to be here,” she said, near breathless with the depth of meaning behind her words.

  “No servants again, I see.”

  “You know how I prefer to travel without them. I hope it won’t be too much of an imposition.”

  “Is it ever?” She laughed, hooked Aurelia’s arm in hers, and led her towards the parlor. “Now, tell me, how goes the hunt for your red rabbit?”

  IX

  Carn didn’t see Aurelia leave but he assumed her departure was the cause of Hame’s despondency. They made a fine pair that evening, what with his frustration at being unable to master Aurelia’s lesson, and Hame’s brooding. They slept apart again, which suited him fine. He didn’t want to fuck angry, not the first time.

  The next morning, he rose early and slipped outside to practice. The forest glowed with the light of the early sun. Having grown up on a farm, being surrounded by so many trees struck him as odd. He preferred to look across fields to hills far in the dista
nce, whereas here trees fenced him in. But there was little to be done about it, so he settled against a trunk, facing away from the cottage.

  Scooping up three stones, he rested them in the palm of his hand, attempting to levitate them one by one. The trials of yesterday and expectations of similar failure today knotted his shoulders and the muscles in his neck until they became as rigid as the bark rasping against his skin.

  Soon he stopped trying to make the rocks circle, and instead took to levitating whatever he could lay his mind on and fire it into the sky through breaks in the trees. Each object soared with the force of his anger. The upside of this little trick was that his strength grew. The weakness he’d suffered before had largely been pushed aside. It was still there, and he’d pay for it later, but he lost himself in this display of petty power.

  Another pebble zoomed off into the sky.

  “Anger is coming off you in waves, Carn.”

  He scrambled to his feet as Hame walked between the trees. “How long have you been watching?”

  “Not long. Had some work of my own to do.”

  Carn bit his tongue. He wanted to ask whether he had seen him master Aurelia’s test, but to do so would reveal his desperation and his shaken confidence.

  “Sorry, I had no visions about you.” Hame smiled.

  “I wasn’t—”

  He waved his hand. “Don’t be disheartened. We all have to start somewhere.”

  But before coming here he had believed he was already advanced, and that meeting Aurelia would bring him greater power. Instead she'd shown him how far beneath her he was. Blythe had been impressed with his abilities, particularly when it came to shields, but now he suspected he’d been indulged.