Weremage: A Book of Underrealm (The Nightblade Epic 5)

by Garrett Robinson

  The moment she finished speaking, Kal snorted. “A weremage? I told you I have known Hewal since he was a boy. I have known his father. He went through the trials. There was no trace of magic within him.”

  Loren looked at the others in the room. Weath and Shiun shifted on their feet, not meeting Kal’s gaze. Only Chet and Niya looked straight ahead, unflinching. “It is true, Chancellor,” said Chet. “We were all there.”

  Kal looked at Niya. She gave him a small nod. His scowl deepened.

  “Hewal made mention of how long he had been a Mystic,” said Loren. “He called it a charade, one he had been forced to play for a long time. Mayhap he was entered into your service for just this purpose—in which case, his father may not be so close a friend as—”

  “Be silent!” said Kal, slapping his hand on the table. “If what you say is true, do you not think I can come to that guess on my own? The High King’s favor has given you too high an opinion of your own wit—high enough that it spurs you to foolish courses of action, like pursuing one of my own men into the wilderness without orders.”

  Loren had to restrain a grim smile. Her tone had perhaps been too condescending, but in truth, it felt good to throw Kal off-balance, after the way he always grumped at her. “You call that foolish? Had I gone to you, we might have missed Hewal altogether, and you would know nothing.”

  “I know little enough now,” said Kal. “Had you done things properly, Hewal might not have escaped.”

  Loren’s hand tightened where it held her belt. “I serve the High King,” she said, quiet but firm. “I will do what I think is in her best interests.”

  Rather than answer, Kal turned to the rest of them. “You are all dismissed.”

  The Mystics began to move for the door, but Chet tried to speak up. “We have told you already why we—”

  “You are here to corroborate the tale of the Nightblade,” said Kal, his voice rising. “Now that that is done, you are as useful as a second nose. Get out! You are not in the High King’s service, nor mine. Only Loren has that honor, and you are nothing more than her bedfellow guest.”

  Chet’s whole body tensed. Loren saw the muscles working in his jaw. But she put a hand on his arm and turned him to face her. “It is all right,” she murmured. “Go.”

  He did, but only after giving Kal a final dirty look. Niya held the door until he was through, and then, as she closed it behind them all, she locked gazes with Loren for a moment. She gave a small nod and a smile, and then she was gone. But Loren noted quietly that, again, Annis had remained in the room, though Kal still paid her no mind.

  Loren braced herself, certain that now Kal would loose the full strength of his wrath. He looked like a pot about to boil over, his anger frothing just below the lid. But rather than shout, he held out a hand. “You said there was a letter. Give it to me.”

  Tension bled from her, and Loren reached into her cloak from the letter with something like relief. Kal whipped it open and looked it over. Loren wished she had had someone read it to her before she returned to Ammon, but there was no time. Kal frowned. “Darkness damn this place. Girl, fetch me that lamp.”

  At first Loren thought he meant her, but he waved his hand to Annis. The girl started, as though she was surprised to be called upon, and then hastened to obey. Kal sat in a chair and held the letter close to the light, his eyes skittering back and forth across it. When they reached the bottom of the letter and the symbol of the Shades there, his frown deepened. Loren wished she had had someone read the letter to her before they returned to Ammon, but there had been no time.

  “This is a report,” said Kal. “A report of your arrival here at the stronghold. It seems you have attracted someone’s interest.”

  “You mean Damaris,” said Loren. “It must be her.”

  Beside Kal, Annis’ expression grew solemn, and she dropped her gaze to the table. But Kal raised his brows and leaned back in his chair. “That seems quite a guess.”

  “Hewal mentioned her name. He said we would be reunited soon.”

  “If …” Kal paused, and his mouth twisted as though he had just bitten into a bit of spoiled meat. “If Hewal is indeed an agent of the enemy, he may have spoken only to throw you off the trail. We can put no stock in any of his words.”

  Her recent dream flashed back into her mind. The city where she had seen Hewal, and what he had told her there. She braced herself, and then took the leap. “There was something else. Hewal mentioned something before he escaped. A place called Dahab.”

  The room fell utterly quiet. Annis looked up, her eyes wide with wonder, and then she and Kal looked at each other. Loren had feared she might get only blank looks from them, but this was somehow worse. Was Dahab the city she had seen? And if so, how had she seen it? What was happening to her?

  “That is quite a detail,” said Kal. “Why did you not tell us that when you first mentioned the tale?”

  “It has been a long night,” said Loren. “It slipped my mind.”

  “Is there anything else that ‘slipped your mind?’ I would rather not deal with any more surprises this eve.”

  Loren shook her head quickly. “That is all.”

  Kal studied her, and then threw the letter down upon the table. He began to pull at his beard, while Annis leaned surreptitiously over the table, trying to see the letter.

  “I think that Damaris is in Dahab,” said Loren. “I think that this letter was for her. I wish to go there, and capture her.”

  A loud snort erupted from Kal as though by accident, so loud that for a moment he dissolved into a fit of coughing. “I am in no mood for your games tonight, girl. You wish to go on a perilous mission led by little more than guesses. Damaris is not even of interest to us now, for as I have told you, Rogan is a greater threat. Do you even know what Dahab is?”

  She had come this far, and so there seemed little sense in restraining herself. “A city of gold. It is built around a waterfall, is it not?”

  Kal rolled his eyes. “Very well. You have heard of it. But the rest of what I said holds true.”

  “But this is the best chance we have seen,” said Loren. “Damaris is there. I can … I can feel it. After our confrontation in the Greatrocks, she went to ground, and there she has remained ever since. She must be in Dahab. And it makes sense to pursue her. She worked with Rogan, and with the Shades. When the attack on the Seat failed, Rogan and his soldiers would have needed somewhere to hide, and someone to help hide them. Who better than the family Yerrin, and Damaris in particular? This is but the first step in the mission you have set before me.”

  “Pardon me if I do not trust in your feelings,” said Kal. “I have only ever trusted information from reliable sources, and I will not change that now.”

  Loren shook her head and leaned over the table. “Where do you get such information? From your spies. You have them across all the nine kingdoms, do you not? Let me be one of them. It is better than sitting here idle, as I have ever since I arrived. Enalyn did not raise me up so that I could languish away here.”

  But she had gone too far at last, for Kal shot to his feet and slammed both hands on the table opposite her. “Do not bandy the High King’s name about here as though you are her kin, you upstart little shit. She appointed you the Nightblade so that you could follow my orders, and that is what you will do.”

  His fury almost made her quail, and for a moment she saw not Kal, but her father, and his meaty fists clenched by his sides. She shook away the image. Her father was not here. He was dead. And she would never flinch before an angry old man again. “Before the High King brought me into her service, I always acted on my own. It is what I did during that time that made me valuable enough that she desired my assistance in the first place.”

  Kal roared so loud that a fleck of his spit splashed upon her cheek. “No, what you did during that time led to the death of Jordel!”

  She froze. Kal had made no move towards her, had not made to hit her, as her father had. Yet she felt
as though she had been struck in the gut, and a far harder blow than she ever suffered at home in the Birchwood. She felt a stinging at the back of her eyes, and she fought it away. Kal would not get that satisfaction. But he seemed to know how deeply he had hurt her, for he wore a grim smile and leaned back.

  “Did you ever consider that mayhap Enalyn brought you into her service so that she—or someone, and I suppose the duty is now mine—could keep an eye upon you? Left to your own devices, you helped Xain escape the law, and then escape Jordel, fleeing across half the nine kingdoms. Because of you, Jordel was banished from his order—my order, I should say. And then he died for it. You do not need to be left to your own devices. You need someone who knows what they are doing to instruct you—and, darkness take you, you must heed those instructions. It is even in your name. You call yourself Nightblade. A blade is a tool. A knife in the hand, to be wielded—not some thrice-damned hero of legend.”

  Loren wanted to answer him. Nightblade was no one’s tool. Mennet had never been a tool, he had been his own man. And had she not always desired to be Mennet? But words would not come—not because she could not think of them, but because they would not emerge past the tightness of her throat, and if she forced them to, they would come with tears. She could not allow that.

  In the silence that consumed the room, it was Annis who saved her. She spoke up at last, silently, speaking to Kal. “If she is a tool, then use her. That is a tool’s purpose, is it not? To be used. Honed. I have traveled with Loren almost since the beginning of her travels. I know her as a girl far more capable than she might sometimes appear. But she will learn nothing staying here in Ammon.”

  Kal glanced at her. “Nor will she learn anything if she gets herself gutted in some back alley in Dahab. You may have your uses, girl, but that does not mean I hold you in much higher regard than the upstart here.”

  “Yet you need a spy to investigate this information,” said Annis. “And by sending Loren, you may solve two problems at once, for she will need a party of Mystics to accompany her.”

  She looked at him steadily as she said it, and when he looked to her, they shared a long moment of silence. It seemed to Loren that something passed between them, something she could not understand. Finally Kal gave a frustrated growl and turned back to Loren.

  “Very well,” he said. “But there will be rules. Vow to obey them, and I will send you. Refuse, and you can stay locked in your bedchamber until you rot.”

  Loren lifted her chin. “What rules?”

  “You will do nothing foolish,” said Kal. “That means you will not take any action—real, meaningful action, I mean—without consulting me first, by letter. You will go to Dahab to see if Damaris is there. If she is, you will send word—and you will only send word. You will take no action against her in Dahab without my express approval and guidance.”

  The thought of finding Damaris there, and then not capturing her, felt as though it grated on Loren’s very soul. But if she did not agree, she would be forced to stay here.

  “Very well,” said Loren. “I vow I will obey you, to the letter.”

  Kal snorted. “‘To the letter.’ Very well. We are done here, and you may take your dramatics elsewhere. It is late. Girl, I shall not need you any longer.” He waved Annis off.

  He turned to his desk in the corner. Annis came to Loren, and together they left the council chamber.

  nineteen

  No one waited in the nearby hallways. Once they were out of earshot of the guards, Loren drew Annis aside.

  “I am sorry,” she said. “I should not have asked to pursue your mother without speaking of it with you first.”

  Annis shook her head slowly. She looked as though she were gazing at something behind Loren, but there was nothing there to see. “There was no time. And besides, I think you are right to do this. I think my mother is a worthier target of the King’s justice than Rogan would be. I have had my reservations about him for some time. Even if we should catch him, and execute him, I do not know how much it will accomplish. There are rumors of his exploits across the nine kingdoms, of course, but to most of the kings and nobles he is utterly unknown. But my mother … yes, if my mother was brought low, that would truly give pause to the mighty across the nine kingdoms. Of course, Kal may not wish to anger my family even further—”

  Loren put a hand on her shoulder, and Annis stopped abruptly. Her gaze focused on Loren, as though she were just waking up.

  “I am sorry. Was I babbling?”

  Loren smiled sadly and gripped her shoulder a bit tighter. “No one could blame you for being hesitant to pursue her. Damaris will be treated fairly, Annis—mayhap not mercifully, but fairly.”

  “Yes, I … yes,” said Annis. Tears welled up. She stepped closer to Loren, who put an arm around her shoulders and held her tighter. Annis did not return the embrace, but she put her head on Loren’s shoulder. “I know. And I know that I must sound like a monster, saying these things of my own kin. Yet this—is this not why I wished to escape with you in the first place? I have known since I was a child that Mother’s ways were evil, and that she must be brought to justice. But that has only recently become a possibility. I suppose I have been trying to steel myself for it to happen. I fear I have done a poor job.”

  “You have done marvelously,” said Loren, rubbing her arm. “I am with you, and will help see you safely through this.”

  “I know,” whispered Annis. One shaky arm came up to wrap around Loren’s waist. “Thank you.”

  Loren pushed her back a bit. “All of that having been said, I should warn you—this will likely be perilous. It may make sense for you to remain in Ammon while we pursue her. Kal will certainly want your counsel.”

  Annis shook her head at once. “No. I must be there to face her when she is brought down—the same way I was there in the mountains to confront her. I did not ask to be a Yerrin, but still I am one of them, and it is my duty to see their evil put to rest.”

  Despite herself, Loren chuckled. “And Kal says I am one for dramatics. But very well. If you can convince Kal, I would be happy to stand by your side. Thrice we have been separated, and each time I have missed you worse. Not by my choosing will we ever part ways again. I swear it by the sky.”

  “And I,” said Annis. Then she put her hands on her hips. “But as for convincing Kal—why should I need to? I am not in his service.”

  Loren gave an uneasy look back in the direction of Kal’s council chamber. “I wonder if he would agree.”

  It turned out that Kal did not agree. When Annis came to him with her proposal to accompany Loren on her mission, he raged for almost an hour about his foolish she was acting. From the way Annis described it to Loren afterwards, she bore it all patiently until it seemed clear to her that Kal was only ranting to hear himself shout. Then she slammed her foot on the floor, and when the slap of it shocked Kal to silence, she said, “I am not in your service. I am not in the High King’s service. I am in no one’s service at all, in fact. And so, unless you wish to tie me up and throw me in one of your dungeons, I will accompany Loren of my own free will.”

  Kal scowled and complained a bit more, but in the end, she spoke only the truth. And he was not so angry with her that he denied her a horse from his stables.

  But even so, to Loren’s immense disappointment, it would take them at least two days to ready for the journey. As when she had prepared for her journey on the Seat, she spent it studying maps and learning the routes to reach their destination. She did her planning with Annis, rather than Kal—the chancellor seemed content to let Annis offer her advice in the matter, and did not see fit to provide his own, and for that Loren was grateful.

  Dahab was an old city in the south of Feldemar, and had once been the kingdom’s capital. It was also the ancestral home of the family Yerrin, and had been as far as anyone could discover. Fat with wealth and power, it exerted its influence over all the nine kingdoms, though ostensibly it still served the king of Feldemar, who d
welt in the city of Yota.

  At this time of year, the roads there would be hard. They would be crossing the heart of Feldemar, where lands were more jungle than forests, and where bogs and marshes awaited to trap the unwary. Indeed, throughout the nine kingdoms, Feldemar was thought of as a particularly wild place. Its kings through the centuries had built and maintained roads as best they could, but the land fought them at every turn. And without roads to carry troops, supplies, and order, the “kingdom” was more akin to a collection of village clusters scattered across the wide and wild landscape. Lesser lords would often claim rule over one part of it or another, and as long as taxes still made their way to Yota, the king rarely put forth much effort to suppress them. Thus small wars of territory and dominance often raged across Feldemar, fought in bitter skirmishes of only a few dozen soldiers at a time, in the wet and marshy underbrush that covered much of the land.

  But Dahab’s wealth and power kept it free from much of this infighting. War was only good for business when it was fought on a grand scale, and enough coin had been amassed in the city, between the family Yerrin and other, lesser merchant families who made their home there, that order was maintained by any means necessary, and all in the name of commerce. Therefore Loren and her party would only face natural dangers on the road which led to the grand city, and for that she was grateful.

  As for the party itself, Loren would be sent out with the same Mystics who had accompanied her to Ammon in the first place. When Annis told her that, Loren remembered that the girl had said something to Kal about solving two problems at once, and she asked what it had meant. But Annis had avoided her gaze and equivocated. “Ammon was never meant to hold so many soldiers at once,” she said. “It is a constant chore to keep it supplied, and every hungry mouth removed from it makes the job easier.” But Loren knew that when they left the fortress, they would take enough food with them for the journey, and so that seemed a poor explanation. But she could get nothing else from Annis.