by J. J. Green
She suddenly paused and lifted one hand to shade her eyes while the other remained on her stick. “Darius,” she called, her voice thin and feeble. “Darius! I can see you. Come here, my sweet boy.”
Darius turned questioning eyes to Carina. She didn’t know what to say. The old woman, who she guessed was the Spirit Mage, clearly recognized Darius. “Should I go, Carina?”
“I guess so.”
Her brother walked a little faster than the group so that he was soon farther ahead. He met with the Spirit Mage about half a minute before the rest of them caught up to him. The mage had one bony arm across Darius’ shoulders and was leaning her ancient face close to his youthful one. Her expression seemed to convey joy, but Carina also thought she saw a horrible glint of avarice in the old woman’s eyes.
Darius looked fearful.
Chapter Sixteen
Winter had arrived quickly at the mountain castle, and the rooms had grown even colder. As Castiel’s servant, who he’d learned was called Vera, left his bed, he told her to maintain a constant fire for him. The innuendo of his request wasn’t lost on him, and he smirked as she dressed herself.
When his servant went out and closed the door, however, his smile faded. The wonder and pleasure he’d experienced when she’d offered herself to him so readily a few weeks previously had quickly palled. He’d discovered that the fruit given freely held no sweetness.
At the same time, his desire for Sable Dirksen had escalated. While Vera was in his bed, Castiel imagined she was Sable. He even used the clan leader’s name, and he acted out the degradations and perversions he planned using on her when she became his. When that might happen was still uncertain, but he believed he edged closer toward the goal every day.
Castiel threw back the covers and climbed out of bed. Despite the heating system the Dirksens had installed and the crackling fire in the grate, he shivered. The clammy chill never went away in the mountain castle abode. Castiel pulled on his pants and put on a shirt, and then the thick, padded jacket he’d ordered to be made. His clothes felt tight. He guessed he’d done some growing. His arms and chest certainly seemed more muscular.
He faced the mirror and checked out his appearance. His beard nearly covered most of his jaw and his face had lost some of its roundness. He imagined he must look similar to his father when he was young. All the more fitting that he should achieve Father’s ambition for him. What a pity he would not be around to witness it. He would have liked to make the old man proud.
It was nearly time for dinner. Castiel left his room to go downstairs to the great hall. He didn’t care about punctuality, but these days dinnertime was about the only time of the day when he could reliably speak to Sable. Most days she was gone from the castle, though she never told him where she went.
He walked down the steps, remembering that horrible period when Sable had set him to helping with the restoration of the capital. How demeaning that had been. He should have refused her request, or made his protest earlier. His most recent task of trying to extract information from the Sherrerr spy who had given away information about Ostillon had been far more enjoyable.
He hadn’t managed to find out anything useful, he had to admit, but he had had fun trying.
When Castiel strutted into the hall, he was surprised by the sight of a guest for dinner. Commander Kee had joined them. Castiel hadn’t seen the man since his first day at the castle, when he’d made the unfortunate error of killing Tremoille. He wondered what had happened to Calvaley. He hadn’t heard anything about the old man.
“Commander Kee,” said Castiel in a statesman-like manner as he arrived at the dining table, “you’re with us again. Do you have something important to report?”
Kee gave him a sardonic look, and Castiel noticed the man failed to stand up and salute him.
“Now then, Castiel,” said a voice. Sable stood in the doorway. “Don’t tempt the commander into giving away secrets.” She entered the hall, looking magnificent. She was wearing a floor-length, high-necked gown made of a rich, thick, black fabric. Castiel had expected a woman of her wealth and status to wear expensive jewelry, like the kind his father had given his mother, but as always Sable wore none. Somehow the absence of decoration seemed to make her appear more impressive.
Kee pushed back his chair, stood, and saluted as she approached the table. Castiel scowled and pulled out a chair, deliberately scraping the legs across the stone floor. He threw himself into his seat. How dare Sable imply he was not allowed to hear Dirksen ‘secrets.’ How much longer would he be treated as an outsider? Sable and Kee ignored his petulance and sat down.
“Thank you for joining us, Commander,” said Sable. “I know you must be tired after your flight.”
“It’s always a pleasure to attend you, ma’am.”
“I read over your report just now, but I’d also like to hear it in your own words. That was why I requested your presence tonight.”
“Ah….” Kee’s gaze flicked to Castiel.
“You can speak freely in front of Castiel. This business concerns him.”
Castiel perked up. “I’m all ears.” He took a sip of wine. Over his weeks at Sable’s castle, he’d become more accustomed to the drink and could now tolerate three or four glasses before becoming unsteady. He’d been careful not to repeat the shameful event of his first taste of alcohol.
“In that case,” said Kee, “as I wrote, ma’am, we confirmed the debris we found was from the Torpille, the destroyer we sent in pursuit of the mage children. We were unable to establish the cause of the ship’s destruction. We found no impact site. It was as if the ship exploded from within.”
“They probably Cast Fire into the ship’s fuel tanks,” said Castiel with a tone that he hoped made him appear knowledgeable. “That was how Carina and the others destroyed your shipyard. They knew where the tanks were, you see.”
“I thought you said it was you who destroyed our shipyard?” said Sable.
“Oh, er,” Castiel said, blood heating his cheeks. “That was what I meant.”
“Continue, Kee.”
“I’m not convinced it was the mage children who destroyed the Torpille. It might have been another ship. We found the shuttle, adrift but empty, without any bodies inside. That made little sense to me. The only explanation that accounted for all the evidence was that the Torpille picked up the mages but then was destroyed by an unknown force. Would the mage children commit an act of self-destruction? It seemed unlikely.
“So we searched. That was the cause of our delay, ma’am. We were combing the territory for any signs of a trace from a third ship. Luckily for us the area is rarely frequented. We finally picked up some patchy signs a week’s travel from the site of the Torpille’s destruction. They led in the direction of a planetary system with a single inhabited planet called Pirine.”
“I looked up Pirine when I saw your report,” said Sable. “The planet doesn’t seem to have any significance. I don’t understand why a ship from there would travel out to the shuttle to collect the children. Perhaps Castiel can shed some light? Do you remember hearing anyone in your family refer to that planet?”
Castiel trawled his memory. “No, I don’t. I think it’s unlikely anyone did. We never used to talk about other planets. Father didn’t place much emphasis on galactic topography in our education.”
“Could the ship have been a Sherrerr vessel?” Sable asked Kee.
“Impossible to say yet, ma’am.”
“Pirine has never demonstrated sufficient potential for either us or the Sherrerrs to take control of it,” Sable said. “The economy is almost entirely agrarian due to the scarcity of natural resources. The only explanation for what you observed that makes sense to me is that a portion of the Sherrerr fleet fled there after their failed attempt to take Ostillon. Did you find any evidence that might support that scenario, Kee?”
“We didn’t approach the planet closely, but from what we could tell the evidence of space traffic seemed normal for
a planet of Pirine’s low economic and political importance. But the trace we were following disappeared at the system’s edge. Consequently, we weren’t able to ascertain where the ship landed, if in fact it ended up on Pirine itself.”
“Disappearing traces,” said Sable. “That sounds like mage work. You mean these people could be hiding out on an uninhabited planet or moon somewhere in the system?”
“A moon would be the only possibility. The other planets are high-gravity or gaseous giants, unfit for human life.”
“Hmmm. Well, it seems we have narrowed down the possibilities considerably. Thank you for your excellent work, Kee. Now we have to act. What do you think we should do, Castiel?”
Jerked from reverie, Castiel splashed wine on himself. He put down his glass and picked up a napkin. As he dabbed at himself, disconcerted, he replied, “We should travel to Pirine and find my brothers and sisters. As you said, Sable, as long as they aren’t working for us they’re a liability. We can’t allow the Sherrerrs to have them.”
“They would be even less of a liability if we killed them,” said Sable. “What do you think about that?”
“Killed them?” The idea appealed. He’d always imagined himself controlling his siblings in the same way as Father had. As well as all the things he could do with their help, it would be payback for years of living as a second-class member of his own family.
Yet Sable had a point. With no other mages around, his own abilities would become rarer and more precious. He would have no competition, no one to make him look lesser.
The thought of ending the lives of the siblings he’d grown up with gave him a strange sensation. Was this how guilt felt? Never mind. He would soon get over it. “It might be difficult to kill them due to their abilities, especially my half-sister, Carina. She trained as a merc. But though they can Cast, they’re still human and can be killed the same ways.”
Kee had been watching Castiel as he spoke. At this last sentence he turned his head away in disgust. Sable’s expression remained enigmatic. Castiel recalled her statement the first time he’d met her, that she couldn’t stand disloyalty. Had he said the wrong thing? It couldn’t be helped. If his siblings’ deaths were necessary for his elevation to power, so be it. He wouldn’t shed a tear for any of them, least of all Carina.
“Very well,” said Sable. “What’s clear is that we must prepare a small fleet to fly to Pirine. I want to find these mages before they become a threat. If we can’t put them to work for us, we’ll put them out of action, permanently. How long will it take for you to equip a cruiser?”
“The repairs on the Elsinore are nearly complete, ma’am,” said Kee. “I would only need another two days to make her ready.”
“Good. We can work out the details later. Castiel, are you excited to finally have something to get your teeth into?”
“Me? You mean I’m going too?”
“Of course. Who better to defeat mages than another mage?”
“Great!” Castiel exclaimed. Then he reasserted his composure. “That’s excellent news. I’ll look forward to it.”
***
Despite his intention to restrain himself, Castiel drank too much that evening. He was overjoyed that Sable was finally including him in an important, noteworthy task. While she and Kee chatted about what troops to assign finding and capturing or killing his siblings and other plans, Castiel ran through many scenarios in his mind, each involving a moment of supreme triumph.
He would either decisively Repulse his brothers and sisters’ Casts, resulting in their capture, or he would order soldiers to shoot them. Or perhaps he would trick them into a trap and lock them up, depriving them of their elixir so they were weak and helpless.
The last scenario triggered a realization: he hadn’t brought his elixir with him to the dining table. Not long after he’d arrived at the castle, he’d told Sable he needed something more convenient and portable than his glass bottle in which to carry the liquid essential to Casting. She’d suggested he commission an Ostillonian craftsman to create something. Castiel had found a metalworker who had made him an ornate canister inscribed with his initials. Usually, he went everywhere with it, but that evening he didn’t have it with him.
The warmth the alcohol had given him drained away in a moment and was replaced by a chill. Castiel felt naked, and Sable and Kee, who were chatting animatedly about ship-to-ground weapons, seemed suddenly dark and distant. Without his elixir, he was nothing and nobody. Sable could kick him out of the castle and tell one of her servants to break his back on a rock, and there would be nothing he could do about it.
“Are you feeling unwell?” Sable asked him, noticing the change in his features.
“Maybe ma’am should ask someone to bring a bucket,” Kee quipped.
Castiel swallowed. “I’m all right. I’m just tired. I think I’ll go to bed now.”
“Good night, then,” said Sable, immediately returning her attention to Kee.
Castiel stood up, the backs of his knees pushing away his chair. He wavered and grabbed the tabletop for support. Kee rolled his eyes. Castiel walked off unsteadily. He had to get to his elixir. He’d left it in his room. He only needed to feel the reassuring touch of the cold metal canister. He vowed never to be without it again.
He took the elevator even though his room was on the next floor. It was faster and he didn’t trust himself on the steps. To fall down would be the height of embarrassment. When the elevator doors opened, he leaned on one edge for support as he stepped out into the corridor.
As soon as he reached his room Castiel went straight to the bedside drawer where he kept the canister. He pulled it open and blinked for a few moments as he took in what he saw. Horror struck him. The drawer was empty! He pulled out the one below it and the third one. Then he pulled out all the drawers and scrabbled around the empty frame. He pulled the furniture away from the wall and threw it across the room. Where could his elixir be? He was certain he’d put the canister in its usual place before Vera had come to pay him her daily visit.
Castiel searched his room, stripping the covers from his bed, tossing the pillows onto the floor. He peered underneath the bed, and then dragged it away from the wall. He remembered the clothing chest in the corner of the room. Of course! He must have put the elixir in there by accident. But when he lifted the lid and hauled out all the clothes, the canister wasn’t inside. Where could it be?
Castiel grabbed his hair in frustration. He had to find the precious liquid. Everything depended on it. If it wasn’t in his room it had to be because someone had stolen it. Perhaps Vera was the thief. The stupid girl was infatuated with him. She’d taken it in order to have something of his. Or perhaps another servant had taken it, imagining they could sell the canister for a good price.
That had to be the answer. One of the servants had taken it. He would have to find out who it was and demand that Sable fire them—after punishing them heavily.
He marched out of his room, anger driving away the effects of his excessive drinking. He went down the stairs and rushed into the great hall. “One of your servants has stolen my elixir,” he blurted.
Kee was standing and pushing in his chair. Sable was draining her glass. Both turned to Castiel, their eyes widening at his outburst.
“I demand that all the servants’ quarters are searched until it’s found. And the thief must be punished severely.”
“Your elixir?” asked Kee. “Do you mean this?” He picked up Castiel’s canister from the tabletop.
It had been there all along! Castiel realized he must have put it down somewhere he couldn’t see it and, in his drunken state, he’d assumed he’d forgotten it.
Castiel wished he could undo his outburst. He wished he could wind time back by one minute. But he couldn’t.
“Yes,” he said quietly, “that’s it.”
Kee maintained a sardonic gaze on Castiel as he crossed the hall. The commander held the canister out at arm’s length, waiting for Castiel to take i
t from him. When the container changed hands, Castiel returned to the staircase, feeling Sable and Kee watching him the entire way. They were silent, but after he’d climbed a few steps and was out of their sight, Sable’s laughter peeled out and was quickly joined by Kee’s loud, deep chuckles.
Castiel opened the door to his room and surveyed the mess he’d created. He was furious. He hated Sable and Kee for laughing at his mistake. He hated that he’d done something so stupid.
One thing that was clear, he wasn’t going to sleep in the disarray caused by his frantic search. He went to his interface and called the servants’ quarters, demanding that Vera come up to his room instantly and tidy it up.
He flung himself onto his bed. He would take out his anger on the girl when she arrived. A minute later there was a knock at the door and it opened. The servant panting outside wasn’t Vera but another young girl.
Castiel sat up in surprise. “Where’s Vera?”
“I don’t know, sir,” the girl replied, catching her breath after running to his room. “I was told I am to be your room servant from now on. My name is—”
“I don’t give a shit what your name is. I want to know what….” Did he really want to know what had happened to Vera? Not at all. Or at least, not if this girl could meet his needs in the same way. She was certainly as pretty as Vera had been.
“I want you to tidy up this mess,” he said, “but that isn’t all. Come over here.”
The girl took quick steps across the room until she was only a few feet from his side.
“Take off your clothes.”
To Castiel’s surprise, the girl complied with his instructions without a moment’s hesitation. Castiel’s eyes widened. It was so easy! Vera hadn’t been a fluke. It was much easier than he’d been led to believe in stories he’d read and dramas he’d watched. But maybe it wasn’t so remarkable. After all, he was an important member of the Dirksen household. Of course the girl would do whatever he wanted. Perhaps what was happening was normal in rich and powerful clans.