“It wasn’t me he betrayed, my lady; it was Glaeba.”
“Still, your plan has some merit. And I can see the benefit of having a spy in the meetings you have with my brother.” Elyssa laughed then, a forced, silly laugh that was as false as it was telling. “I mean, I can see how Jaxyn would think he might benefit from having a spy in the meetings you have with my brother.”
“Of course, my lady. I never assumed you meant anything else.”
Elyssa smiled brightly, apparently taking him at his word. “Then shall we have dessert? All this talk of war and spies has made me quite peckish.”
“By all means.”
Elyssa glanced up at the door where Warlock had stood throughout the entire discussion without moving a muscle.
Tides, that creature has more courage than I do, thought Stellan.
“Cecil! You can serve dessert now.”
The canine bowed and moved to the table, the very picture of docile submission. It was only as he turned to offer Stellan the plate of delicate pastries his hostess had ordered for lunch that the Crasii allowed himself a faint nod of approval.
Stellan wished he shared the big canine’s confidence. He might have planted the idea in Elyssa’s head about using Warlock to feed false information to Jaxyn, but there were two parts to his deal with Warlock.
And Stellan didn’t have the faintest idea how he was going to save Boots and Warlock’s newborn pups from the Tide Lords and get them back to Glaeba.
Chapter 44
Arkady had thought the first meeting between Cayal and Declan was tense, but other than the slightly lessened risk of a natural disaster, things did not noticeably improve once they’d retired inside.
Azquil and Tiji had wisely made themselves scarce, leaving Cayal, Arryl, Declan and Arkady to sort things out among themselves. It was midmorning by the time they took their seats around Ambria’s incongruously normal kitchen table to discuss the fate of the world.
Not that Arkady didn’t have her own share of worldly concerns. She was already regretting letting Cayal kiss her that way on the dock when he arrived so unexpectedly. She probably wouldn’t have, had she and Declan not argued earlier. And she was having no luck at all convincing herself it was just shock and not a perverse desire to get even with Declan that had prompted her to respond so willingly. The trouble was, even if she’d done it to annoy Declan, in the process she’d sent a message to Cayal she hadn’t meant to give him. She wasn’t in love with Cayal. Her feelings for the Immortal Prince were far more complicated than that. She was fascinated by him, horrified by him, afraid of him, grateful to him and even attracted to him. None of those feelings, however, even taken as a whole, constituted love.
Of course, the problem was, having greeted him like a long-lost lover, Cayal was acting as if that’s exactly what she was, which was doing nothing but irritate Declan. On the other hand, Declan had made it quite clear this morning that he wanted nothing to do with her, so the Tides take him and be damned.
I miss Stellan, Arkady decided wistfully, as she took a seat at the table an equal distance from both men, for fear of giving either one of them ideas. At least when I was married to him, I knew exactly where I stood.
“Who wants to go first?” Arryl asked as she took a seat opposite Arkady. Now the men had let go of the Tide and the Senestran Wetlands were no longer in imminent danger of annihilation, she seemed a lot happier.
“You said you know the identity of my father,” Declan said to Cayal. “Why don’t you start?”
Arryl nodded in agreement. “I’d like to know what you’re doing here first.”
“I’m here because Lukys asked me to come,” Cayal said, glancing at both of them. “He wants you to join him in Jelidia, Arryl. You, Medwen and Ambria. Have you got anything to drink around here?”
“I’ll make some tea,” Arkady offered, glad for an opportunity to do something useful, however banal. It also meant she didn’t have to look either Cayal or Declan in the eye.
“Why would I want to leave Senestra for Jelidia?” Arryl asked. “Why would any of us want to leave, for that matter? We’re quite happy here, thank you very much.”
“We . . . I . . . need your help with something.”
“Exactly what do you mean by something?” Declan asked.
“He’s found a way to die,” Arkady answered for him, certain Cayal would find a way to avoid the truth if he was able.
Cayal glared at Arkady, but didn’t contradict her.
Arryl looked astonished. “Is that true?”
“Lukys seems to think so.” He smiled a little sheepishly. “I had a really good story worked out about needing your help with one of Lukys’s experiments to create a portal to another world. Thanks, Arkady, for spoiling all my fun.”
“How?”
“Well, she told you—”
Arryl shook her head impatiently. “I mean how can Lukys kill an immortal?”
Cayal shrugged. “I don’t know the details. I only know Lukys says he’s found a way and that Coron is already dead. He says we need all the immortals we can muster to do it. That’s all I know.”
“And you expect us to drop everything, to walk away from hundreds of years of peace and security, just so you can die?” Arryl shook her head in amazement. “Tides, but you’re a selfish bastard, Cayal.”
“More selfish than you know, Arryl,” Cayal agreed without apology. “And if you refuse me, Lukys will just send someone else to fetch you.”
She smiled sceptically. “Lukys thinks force will work if the charms of the Immortal Prince fail him, does he?”
“I think the next messenger he sends will be Kentravyon.”
Arryl visibly paled. “But he’s . . . Tides, you’re not telling me Lukys revived Kentravyon, are you?”
Cayal nodded. “Like I said, we’re going to need all the immortals we can find. This will take power, Arryl, not sanity or a particular nobility of spirit.”
Arryl rose to her feet and began pacing the kitchen. “You can’t be serious, Cayal. Surely Lukys knows how dangerous he is? And it’s not like you’ll ever get the opportunity to put him on ice again. Kentravyon won’t fall for the same trick twice.”
“Maybe he wants to try it out on him first,” Arkady suggested, spooning tea into Ambria’s chipped earthenware teapot. She wrapped her skirt around her hands and lifted the heavy kettle from the stove and turned back to the table to find everyone staring at her. “What? I was just thinking out loud, that’s all. I mean, if Lukys has found a way to kill an immortal, why stop at the one who wants to die? Why not get rid of a few more while you’re at it?” She filled the teapot and replaced the kettle on the stove with a loud thump and turned back to the table. Cayal was shaking his head.
“That’s insane. Lukys would never . . .” He hesitated and glanced at Arryl. “Or maybe he would, now I come to think of it.” The Immortal Prince shrugged, unconcerned. “And so what if Lukys does want to kill Kentravyon? It’s not like any one of us—you included, Arryl—wouldn’t have taken out the psychotic bastard eons ago, if we’d had the means.”
Arryl accepted the cup of steaming tea Arkady poured for her without looking at it. “If you can die, Cayal, we all can.”
“Which means you’re not immortal any longer,” Declan added. “Better yet, I’m not immortal.”
His comment seemed to amuse Cayal. “You know, you sound so happy saying that. It’s almost enough to make me like you, Hawkes.”
“That’s interesting,” Declan replied. “Because I can’t imagine a single thing you could say that would make me like you.”
“Enough!” Arryl snapped impatiently, as Arkady handed Declan and Cayal their tea. She had no idea if they still wanted it or not, but at least it had given her something constructive to do for a while.
Cayal ignored the comment anyway; he was too interested in securing Arryl’s cooperation. “So, are you interested?”
“In coming to Jelidia with you to help you die? Absolutely no
t.”
“I need your help, Arryl.”
“And I’ve helped you, Cayal,” she reminded him. “Plenty of times. For thousands of years I’ve been helping you. But this is too much. The Tide is on the turn. You can’t expect me to walk away now from the people who’ve sheltered and protected us for almost a thousand years, at a time when they’ll need our help the most.”
“We need every bit of the Tide we can channel to do this, Arryl.”
“Then convince your new friend here to go with you,” Arryl said, pointing at Declan. “Anyway, he can channel more than me, Medwen and Ambria put together. And I have a feeling he’d be quite happy to watch you die.”
“I’m more interested in your claim about knowing who my father is,” Declan said, although his tone of voice suggested Arryl was right and he’d happily take part in any venture liable to result in the end of the Immortal Prince.
Cayal shrugged, as if the matter was of little or no concern to him. “It’s probably Lukys,” he said.
“How do you know?”
“He told his wife he had a son in Glaeba. If what you say is true, and you’re related to Maralyce, then it stands to reason he was talking about you. Although it doesn’t explain how you managed to become immortal.”
“He was caught in a fire,” Arkady said, when Declan seemed disinclined to answer. “It happened by accident.”
“The Eternal Flame is long gone.”
“Declan says Maralyce claims there never was an Eternal Flame. She says they just told everybody that to keep the numbers down,” Arkady added.
Cayal stared at Declan in amazement. “Are you serious?”
Declan shrugged. “It’s what she told me. I’ve no idea if it’s true or not.”
“Well, you can ask Lukys when you see him, I suppose.”
“I’m not going with you to Jelidia to meet Lukys.”
Cayal gave Declan a puzzled look. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t care to meet him, any more than I care to help you or have anything to do with any other immortals.”
“But he’s your father.”
“You think he’s my father, Cayal,” Declan said, rising to his feet. “And even if he is, I’m not interested in getting to know him.” He glanced around the table, his look of disgust meant for Arkady along with the other two immortals. “The Tide take all of you and your plans and schemes. I’m not interested in getting involved with any of this.”
Declan left the kitchen, leaving the others staring after him. Arkady pushed her tea away and stood up. “Let me talk to him.”
Cayal studied her suspiciously. “Is there some particular reason he’ll listen to you?”
“He’s my friend.”
“How good a friend?”
“Leave it alone, Cayal,” Arryl said. “Let her talk to him.”
Cayal shrugged and picked up his tea, feigning indifference. “Talk to him then. He needs this more than I need him.”
That was an outright lie, Arkady suspected, but she didn’t bother to say so. Instead, she turned and followed Declan outside, wondering what she could possibly say to him, after everything that had happened today, that was going to make things better and not a thousand times worse.
Declan was standing on the small dock watching a distant speck on the channel that was probably another boat heading for the Outpost. He turned at the sound of footsteps on the wooden planking, and then turned back to stare at the water when he realised it was Arkady.
“Declan . . .”
“Leave me alone.”
“I’ve never seen you lost before.”
“I’m not lost.”
“Yes you are,” she said, coming to stand beside him. “You were always the strong one, when we were children. You always made me feel safe. And now you’re floundering for the first time in your life. I want to return the favour and help you for a change.”
He glanced down at her sceptically. “Not flaunting your affair with the Immortal Prince might be a good place to start.”
“You made it quite plain how you felt about us this morning, Declan.”
“I’m glad you were able to get over the disappointment and move on with your life in such a timely manner. Tides, it must have taken you . . . oh, an hour, at least . . .”
Arkady knew Declan well enough to know he was trying to pick a fight with her to avoid facing the real issue. He was the master of distraction. He always had been, even when they were children.
“I’m not going to fight with you, Declan.”
He folded his arms across his body and looked away. “Then go away, Arkady. I’m not really interested in doing anything else with you right now.”
“Cayal is offering you the chance to meet your father. To find out something about what you are . . .”
“I don’t care.”
She wanted to stamp her foot at his stubbornness. “Well, if you won’t do it for yourself, do it for your grandfather’s memory.”
He glared at her. “Don’t you dare bring Shalimar into this. He has nothing to do with it.”
“He has everything to do with it, Declan,” she said, lowering her voice a little, although it was unlikely they would hear her inside the house unless, she was shouting. “You spent your whole life working for the Cabal, looking for a way to end the Tide Lords. And here you are, with the answer being offered to you on a silver platter, and you don’t want anything to do with it.”
Declan stared at her for a moment, as if the idea of helping the Cabal had never even occurred to him, and then he shook his head. “You think I can go back to the Cabal now, after everything that’s happened to me?”
“I think you’re about to discover the very thing your wretched Cabal has been seeking for the last five thousand years, and you’re going to turn your back on the knowledge because you’re angry at me.”
“You think I’m that petty, do you?”
“Frankly, yes.”
“Well, then, it’s a good thing the Immortal Prince is here for you. Clearly, I don’t measure up to your high standards.”
Arkady wanted to slap him. She might have, had not the single passenger in the boat heading for the Outpost chosen that moment to stand up and begin calling out to them urgently. She turned toward the water, a little surprised to discover that the passenger waving at them so frantically was another chameleon. Before Arkady could work out what the little Crasii was yelling, Azquil and Tiji appeared from behind the Outpost, pushing past Declan and Arkady in their haste to reach the water.
“Tenika!” Azquil called, as the boat approached. “What happened? Where are Lady Ambria and Lady Medwen?”
The amphibians put on an extra burst of speed to bring the boat into the dock. Arkady gasped when she realised that not only was the little chameleon frantic, but she was bleeding from a nasty head wound. Azquil helped her out of the boat without bothering to secure it. Declan and Arkady hurried forward but stopped when Tiji turned and warned them back with a look.
The little Crasii burst into tears as the male hugged her, whispering soothing nonsense words to her. Tiji knelt beside them, stroking the wounded chameleon’s silver scales in an equally comforting, if somewhat redundant, gesture. After a moment, the sobbing Crasii seemed to get a grip on herself and pushed Azquil away.
“What happened, Tenika?” he asked.
“They arrested Lady Medwen and Lady Ambria,” the little Crasii said.
“Who arrested them?” Arkady asked.
“The Merchant Marines, probably,” Azquil said, although he seemed a little annoyed he had to explain. “They’re the only ones in the wetlands who’d bother arresting anyone.” He turned back to Tenika. “Why were they arrested?”
Tenika sniffed loudly before she answered. “We were on our way to Port Traeker to tell them about the doctor. About him dying, and you know . . . about it being a terrible accident. But when we reached the Delta Settlement, there was a Medura ship already in port, and the ship’s captain was the doct
or’s brother or something.”
“Brother-in-law, probably,” Arkady corrected. “Cydne didn’t have any siblings.” She remembered the Delta Settlement too. She’d passed through the port on her way to Watershed Falls with Cydne. Ten times the size of Watershed, it was the main port on the complicated network of channels and floodplains that made up the wetlands. It was also as far as the deep-draughted trading ships could go.
Everything that traded out of the Senestran Wetlands came in by raft or small boat to the Delta Settlement, where it was loaded onto the larger trading vessels belonging to the great merchant houses like the Meduras and the Parduras, and then taken back to Port Traeker. It made sense that one of Olegra’s many brothers was in port. They were all involved in trade and most captained their own vessels. That’s what Cydne had liked about them so much; all those brothers-in-law that came with his marriage to Olegra Pardura meant he was free to practise as a physician.
And to murder innocent Crasii, as it turned out.
“I’m not sure who this captain was, but I know he was related to the doctor somehow,” Tenika said, her tears now under control. “Lady Medwen thought it would be faster to tell the captain and let him take the message back to the doctor’s family in Port Traeker.”
“And they got arrested for their trouble?”
Tenika nodded. “I managed to escape. Nobody cares much about slaves, or thinks they know anything useful. But Lady Medwen and Lady Ambria . . . That feline you let go . . . Jojo . . . she got there first. They already knew what had happened. The captain didn’t believe their story about it being an accident. He was furious, Azquil, and threatening to wipe out every village in the wetlands in retaliation. He had them dragged aboard his ship and left for Port Traeker that same night. It was only because Izzy and Lenor waited for us that I got away.”
Azquil turned to the amphibians, who were standing waist deep in the water, leaning on the dock as they listened to Tenika’s tale. They were, presumably, Izzy and Lenor.
“I thank you for bringing my sister back safely,” he said to them. “But you must be exhausted to have made it back from the Delta Settlement so quickly. Please, take your rest. Tenika will be fine now, thanks to you. I’m sure Lady Arryl will call on you again when you’re needed.”
The Palace of Impossible Dreams Page 32