by Cege Smith
Theodora was already on her feet with a wide smile on her face. “Chief General, it is a pleasure. I’ve heard so much about you.”
Rhone looked confused, and Malin felt sorry for him. His mother was an attractive woman, at least when she kept that illusion intact, and she could be utterly charming when she wanted to be.
“I am afraid I haven’t been so enlightened,” Rhone said.
Theodora offered her hand, and Rhone took it automatically, giving her a small bow. Malin wanted to roll his eyes. By the purse of her lips, it was obvious that Angeline wanted to do the same, but held her tongue.
“This is Theodora Baford,” Angeline said in response.
“Supreme Seat, Theodora Baford,” Theodora corrected.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Rhone said. “Your husband was well-respected in Brebackerin.”
For the second time in less than five minutes, Malin was amused. Rhone wouldn’t know that Theodora and his father were married in name alone since the day that the council decided that he would go to the Robart court to act as Chief Advisor to Eric Robart. Malin thought that his father had been relieved. Theodora was a difficult mother, and he could only imagine what his father went through being married to her.
“Thank you,” Theodora said with a small nod. “It is kind of you to say so. It has been difficult having Malin so far away. I miss him each and every day.”
Malin’s jaw fell open. He doubted that Theodora thought about him at all for weeks on end. The fact that he still existed was a thorn in her side.
“We have business to discuss, Theodora,” Angeline said interjecting herself into the conversation. “We have a plan for removing Monroe and Sophia from being a threat inside the palace.”
Malin marveled at Angeline’s confidence. She had been thrown so many surprises, and each and every time she seemed to come back from them more self-assured than ever. His father told him that when Eric ascended to throne, it was months before Eric could make a decision without first having to consult at least three different advisors. Angeline assumed the throne three days ago, and if he didn’t know better, Malin would think that she had been queen for years.
It made him admire and desire her all the more.
“You used a spell on Connor to bind him to you so that you could control him,” Angeline said. “I want to do the same thing to Monroe and Sophia.”
Theodora took a small step back as she regarded Angeline. “It isn’t a complicated spell, but as you well know, it requires that they consume the blood of the one who serves as the anchor.”
“I want you to tell me about it. Every detail, every word,” Angeline said. “Rhone will help with ensuring that they drink the blood.”
“Such a spell requires a deft and experienced hand. I understand that you possess some rudimentary spellcasting abilities, Your Majesty, but these things are best left to the experts.”
Malin winced, as much from Theodora’s tone as her words. He might only have been living in the Robart court for eight years, but he knew there was one thing that they didn’t take lightly to. That was being told ‘no’.
Angeline smiled, which made her appear even younger than her eighteen years. But he knew better. Angeline Robart was wise beyond her years, and had spent the last fortnight battling wits with creatures that didn’t exist in her world before that and she survived. He even thought that it was possible that she thrived. Her wide-eyed, shy smile was a deceptively useful guise that practically guaranteed that the other party would underestimate and overreach. It was something that he would have to watch out for himself while counseling her in the future.
“While I appreciate your position, I have done things with magic that no one else has done in a thousand years,” Angeline said. “With your skilled guidance, I am confident that there won’t be an issue with the spell.”
“I am afraid I’ll have to insist,” Theodora said, her smile stretched so tautly across her face that Malin began to think her skin would crack.
“I think you forget our agreement,” Angeline said with another benign smile. “Inside the palace walls, you will abide by my rules. And right now, I’m telling you I will cast the binding spell, and it will be my blood that serves as the anchor.”
“That is madness,” Theodora sputtered. “If they fight against the binding, and I think we can all agree that they will, they have the ability to exhaust the anchor to the point of insanity. That is why the anchor is always someone other than the one casting the spell.”
“Absolutely not,” Angeline replied. “My people have suffered enough at the hands of the Clan and the vampires.”
“This sounds unwise,” Rhone said. He looked at Malin. “What say you, Chief Advisor?”
It was a test. It made sense that Rhone would fall into line with anything that the Queen asked of him. His loyalty didn’t extend to the Clan. Rhone made a valuable ally, and Malin had to admire Angeline’s courage in telling the Chief General what was happening at all. It could have gone badly for her, but instead, it looked as if she would be able to use Rhone to test out everyone else’s loyalties.
He felt the weight of Theodora’s stare as well. She expected him to fall in line with her simply because he was Clan and she was the Supreme Seat. But he really wasn’t Clan anymore, was he? That was what he had so clumsily told her earlier. He had no loyalty to them or her anymore. Tomorrow he would marry the woman he loved. He had a duty to her and no one else. He would follow her into the fires of death and brimstone.
“As the One, old rules are no longer applicable,” Malin pronounced. He let the words fall. “I think we will find more room for exceptions than before or what we will ever see again.”
Angeline smiled brilliantly in triumph. Theodora, for her part, kept her face calm. She had lost, and she knew it. Malin found himself intensely curious about what Angeline had done to pull Theodora so tightly into her control. He made another note that he would have to ask Angeline what that meant.
“We should move quickly,” Malin said. “If you mean to taint their drink, we should get that into their hands as soon as possible.”
“I’m having a bottle of the finest red wines sent up from the cellar,” Rhone said. “I will have it sent to the Queen’s chambers with one of the servants with wedding congratulations from one of the major houses.”
“How can you be sure they’ll drink it?” Theodora asked.
“I have it on good authority that they have reason to celebrate,” Angeline said.
Malin scowled. Her good authority would be Connor Radwin. He hoped to separate the two when he chose the sunlight path across the courtyard back to his room, but the other man was persistent. Malin understood the feeling. With Angeline so tantalizingly close to him, he wanted to draw her closer to him and not let go.
“What does the Queen need to do?” Malin asked Theodora.
“Get me a small bowl. Something that can be placed over the fire.”
Malin crossed to the cabinet next to his bed. To the casual eye, it was just an odd assortment of odds and ends on the shelves, but to a spellcaster, they would see all the rudimentary makings of tools needed for spells.
It was Malin’s dark secret. He might have been cast out of the Clan, but he refused to believe that he possessed no skills at all. He had spent the last eight years trying to prove Theodora and the council wrong. Unfortunately for him, other than a few basic spells, his success rate was abysmal. But, as evidenced by the quick healing of his broken hand, he had managed to master a few of them.
Taking the small cauldron from the shelf, he closed the doors once again. He cleared a space on the table in the middle of the room.
“Now what?”
A small knife appeared in Theodora’s hand. “First, we need the blood of the anchor.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Angeline produced her own knife. She caught Theodora’s narrowing of eyes, but the next few minutes were going to be tenuous. There was no way that she was going to allow
anything of Theodora’s to touch her or her blood. Knowing what Connor had gone through to break his blood binding, she couldn’t afford to be put in the same situation. She wasn’t even sure it would be possible for her to break such a binding.
She stepped to one side of the table, and Theodora joined her on her left side. Malin was directly across from her. She and Rhone had discussed several things that they would throw out to the Chief Advisor to gauge his level of loyalty to her. Words were cheap, and she needed to see action in order to believe him. She was surprised to find that she was more than pleased that he had agreed with her on being the anchor. Rhone was prepared to step in had it gone in the other direction, but it wasn’t needed. Theodora backed down, and now she needed Malin to ensure that what Theodora said didn’t contradict the spell she needed to cast.
“Perhaps Malin can act as translator for me,” Angeline suggested.
“Beg your pardon?” Theodora said.
“I know from listening to you before that the spells are cast in another language. I assume it’s a dialect used by the original Clan members. Hopefully you understand that it is important for me to begin to learn the words and nuances as well, in case I need them in the future.”
“It takes years of study with a skilled Clan tutor to learn the language and how to properly harness the kind of magic you are talking about. It isn’t something that can be done in an hour.”
“I can translate,” Malin said quietly. “Surely my knowledge is sufficient for a few words of magic. You said yourself the spell wasn’t complicated.”
Angeline tried to keep the smug smile off her face. She was pushing Theodora to her limits, and if the Supreme Seat decided that the knowledge of the Immortal Ones wasn’t worth it, she could turn on Angeline in an instant. At the same time, Angeline had to put the necessary precautions in place so that she wasn’t the one who ended up in Theodora’s control.
“Perhaps you can tell me how your pet broke my spell before,” Theodora said. “That was unorthodox, and leads me to believe there was a flaw in the way that I cast my spell.”
All it took was draining the blood from the bodies of twenty healthy men, inducing a blood coma, and killing the anchor in her dreams. “He didn’t tell me how he did it,” Angeline lied. “You can ask him yourself the next time you see him.”
She could tell that Theodora didn’t believe her, but it didn’t matter. That was one secret that would remain a secret. Angeline wished that she had been able to sneak another drop of Immortal Blood before starting the spell, but the opportunity hadn’t presented itself.
“You will want to center yourself,” Theodora said. “This spell drains even the strongest of us, and you will get a double dose acting as the anchor. Prepare.”
It felt odd taking direction from Theodora, but Angeline obediently took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She thought about being calm, happy and centered. The first image that blossomed in her mind was the fountain at the center of her mother’s rose garden. Angeline allowed herself to imagine sitting next to the fountain in the rays of the afternoon sun. She found that she could even smell the heady scent of the blooming buds all around her.
“I am ready,” Angeline said.
“Good. You will remain in this place for the duration of the casting of the spell. If, at any point, you feel a tug or a pull away from this place, you will tell me, and we will stop immediately and re-center. Do you understand?” Theodora’s voice in her ear was hypnotizing.
“Yes,” Angeline breathed. She turned her face upward toward the sun. She loved the sun in the afternoons. It always made her feel relaxed and lazy; quite the opposite of her usual day-to-day routine.
“You need to cast at least a thimbleful of blood into the cauldron to begin.”
Angeline in the rose garden continued to laze in the sun even as her physical body brought her knife to her wrist. The flash of pain as she slashed the inside skin of her arm barely even registered in her mind. The sun twinkled for just a moment and then the scene around her solidified once again.
A warm hand grasped hers and turned her wrist downward. “I am here.” Malin’s voice was close. It wasn’t the voice that she wanted to hear, or the one that she trusted the most, but it would have to do.
“Add the Lynchra root,” Theodora continued.
In her hypnotic state, Angeline looked to her left and saw that one of the rose bushes was transformed into the blue-green leaves of the Lynchra plant. The Lynchra only grew in the southernmost regions of Altera where the air was drier and more arid than anywhere else in the country. It was a hearty plant that offered brilliant white blooms once a year.
She felt something hard and earthy smelling pressed into the palm of her hand. She griped it for a second and then opened her hand to drop it into the cauldron.
“Now I need the Queen to repeat these words after me. From the power of the sun and the moon…”
“Achra molen soma eta venton,” Malin whispered.
“Achra molen soma eta venton,” Angeline repeated. She felt something inside of her take hold at the words.
“I offer this blood to be my eyes and ears…”
“I frant ossum drapo corsum olic eta remt.”
Once again Angeline repeated Malin’s words. This time, there was definitely something else guiding the nuance and intonation of them. She felt rather than heard the slight differences. Malin’s interpretation was close, but not perfect.
“The blood to bind and the soul to control…”
“Vext prota,” Malin started, but Angeline interrupted him.
Sitting on her bench in the sun in the perfect afternoon, the words were there on the tip of her tongue. All of them.
“Vext prota jeston eta brata lim.” Angeline felt her voice getting louder as she felt the power of the words warming her limbs. She was more powerful than before, she was sure of it.
Malin’s hand never left hers, but she felt the tightening of it as she continued the words of the spell without any further interruption or guidance. She simply didn’t need it, but she did feel a small measure of comfort having the tie to the outside world.
When the last word left her lips, it was as if the sun above her head exploded. The backlash of the eruption brought her fully back into her body, and she flew backwards from the force of it. She slammed into the wall behind her and hit her head hard before beginning the slide down the wall to the floor. Malin and Rhone were beside her seconds later talking over each other trying to assess if she was all right.
She pushed their hands away even as she tried to gather her wits and understand what happened. “Please, I’m okay. Give me a moment.” The two men rocked back on their heels, and she realized with a measure of chagrin that was all the further either one of them planned to go. She reached up slowly and touched the back of her head. She winced. There was a large bump there, and as she drew her hand back, she saw blood.
“Amateur.” Theodora hadn’t moved from her spot next to the table. Her arms were crossed as she looked at Angeline coldly. “The strength of this spell is almost impossible to control for someone skilled in our ways. Maybe next time you’ll listen to my warning.”
“She knew the words in the old tongue to a thousand year old spell without any assistance from you or me,” Malin said tersely. “I think you fail to give credit where credit is due.”
“Being able to recite the spell is useless if you can’t control the magic,” Theodora replied.
“Did it work?” She didn’t want to hear any more bickering. The only thing she cared about was determining if the spell had been successful or not. She didn’t look forward to the idea of trying again. Her head already throbbed. She hoped that her unique healing abilities did their own magic on her wounds sooner rather than later.
She watched Theodora peer into the cauldron and then back at her with an arched eyebrow. “How would I know? It wasn’t my spell.”
The woman was infuriating, but Angeline had expected no less from her. S
he turned her attention to Malin instead. “How does a spellcaster know that their spell was successful?”
Malin considered the question. “It is difficult to explain, but you should be able to feel it, particularly with a binding spell. You’ve opened up a channel to your very core. Soon, there will be someone else on the other end of that invisible cord. But you should be able to sense it already.”
“Help me up,” Angeline said, holding her arms out. Both men stood and then Malin stepped in front of Rhone blocking any further attempts for assistance. He reached down and put his hands underneath her arms while Angeline grasped his shoulders. A moment later, she was upright again, and Malin set her feet gently on the ground.
“Can you stand?” He didn’t let her go.
Angeline felt a bit shaky, but her footing was sure. She nodded. “Yes. Thank you.” She dropped her hands, and Malin released her. She stepped around him and made her way to the table while trying to forget the longing she saw in his eyes. She glanced down into the cauldron and saw with a start that her blood boiled inside the cauldron even though there wasn’t any heat being applied to it.
Then she felt a pulse that connected with a part of her chest. It was gone as quickly as it came, but she felt certain that it was the spell. She smiled in elation. “I think it worked.”
“Excellent,” Malin said, moving to her side as he smiled down at her. “I knew that you could do it.”
She flushed with pleasure. She wished that she had been as certain as it appeared he had that it would work. “Now we just have to warm it over the fire for a few moments to allow it to reach full potency.” She caught Theodora’s look of surprise. “It wasn’t just the words that filled my mind. It was the directions for the whole spell.”