JOURNEY OF THE SACRED KING II

by JANRAE FRANK

  "Little shit!" Bryndel wiped the spittle from his face and knocked her across the room.

  Arruth lay very still, her mind racing. Her lip bled and she resisted an urge to tongue it. Bryndel knelt beside her, feeling in her neck for a pulse. She moaned softly as he moved her, letting her eyes go unfocussed. "She's alive," Bryndel said.

  "That's something. We don't need trouble. Not that I expect there to be any. She and her sister are always doing risky stunts. Take her down to the infirmary and tell them she fell."

  "I don't want her remembering this little interview," Bryndel said, pulling her pants down around her knees.

  Arruth felt a sharp prick high up on her inner thigh like a needle entering the skin. The world swam and she blacked out.

  * * * *

  Josiah quietly locked the door behind them, hoping the cat would not notice his doing so. The calico lay curled up the middle of their bed. Aejys settled next to her, stroking her brightly colored fur. Josiah joined her there, studying the cat.

  "Show us your other face, little catkin," Aejys said.

  The cat jumped off the bed, turned round once and changed. Her body shimmered into translucence, reformed into a human of middle height with large, round, slitted eyes. There was something very familiar about her face despite the catkin eyes.

  "Juldrid."

  "Yes, that's who I was."

  "Margren's Juldrid?" Josiah asked uneasily.

  "Yes. I prefer my catkin name, Dree."

  There was something about Dree, both wistful and sad that tugged at Aejys. Part of her wanted to be angry with Dree because she had been Margren's na'halaef, part of her pitied Dree. "Tell us why you are here."

  Dree curled up on the floor. "Margren changed. Mephistis encouraged that. He made her sa'necari. She turned on me, forced her child on me, and then gave me to Mephistis. He terrified me. Forced a second child into me, his own and not Margren's. I wanted to die, but the catkin and Dynarien would not let me. They brought me over. The catkin pretended loyalty to Mephistis while spying for Dynarien. They betrayed Dragonshead to Tagalong. Showed her the secret entrance."

  "Why did you wait so long, Dree?"

  "Two reasons. First, the instant I took human form Margren would sense me. She'll want my kittens. They're both mage-born. She'll kill me to get them. My clanmother agrees they must be protected. Margren must not get them, she'll teach them the dark ways."

  "And the second?"

  Dree looked down in her feet, a small secret smile on her lips. "Dynarien said not to change until either you asked me or the spring thaw came."

  "You are holding back," Josiah said. "Just give us all of it."

  Dree smiled at him in a timid way that reminded Aejys of Josh before he and Josiah merged into a single person. "I know where the Spiritdancer is."

  "Spiritdancer?" Aejys questioned.

  "A sword," Josiah told her. "A relic of Eldarion Havenrain, the magical smith to the gods. She is sentient after a fashion, speaking in dreams and emotions. To draw the blade from the altar stone you must come to her wounded and in need. She then draws upon the entirety of your genetic heritage, reconstructs you ... she ... Aejys, your hands! She could fix your hands, cleanse your soul. You would become different, better, but still be yourself, like reincarnation without dying first."

  Hope surged up in Aejys. "Is this true?"

  "Yes," Juldrid said. "And Spiritdancer is the only thing the sa'necari fear more than the lifemages. When a necromancer dies by this blade all the souls he has taken are freed. The dead he has raised are released to the wheel and cannot be recaptured. Those whom he shattered with mortgiefan are healed and no longer wander the world in torment."

  "What do you get out of this?" Josiah asked.

  "A favor from Aejys."

  "What?" Aejys dropped into a cross-legged position in front of her.

  "Sanctuary for myself and my kittens. Protection from Margren and Mephistis. My tribe wishes to migrate to Vorgensburg."

  "Not Vorgensburg. Not here."

  Dree's eyes filled with tears. Aejys drew the catkin into her arms. "Rowanhart, across the bay. I'm building my own kingdom there, remember? You and yours are welcome in Rowanhart."

  "Excuse me," Josiah said, breaking in on them. "But where do we find the sword?"

  "Norendel – The Valley of Carliff, the Mad Lich. He is a good and honorable lich. My clan has taken refuge there."

  "I have heard many strange things about him."

  "Not all of them are true," Dree said, a trifle defensively. "He defends the living against the Waejontori. And he does not prey on them either."

  "Josiah. I don't want to make a long journey like the last one. Can you Gate us there?"

  "It's not Gating, it's Jumping. I can't create Gates, but if one is nearby I can borrow it. Shift it or split it. I can only Jump between places I have been before, beloved. What borders this valley?"

  "Vallimrah and Waejontor," Aejys told him. "Shaurone, also, but you can't get over the mountains from there without going through Lord Hoon's valley."

  Hoon! That was his ward-piercer they found in Dingarim's shoe. Hoon had gotten through Josiah's wards and killed him in his previous life. Hoon murdered his halaefs, Shularrien and Nariya, as well as their son. With his dying breath he had cursed Hoon and swore that he would return into his own bloodline to destroy the vampire. His face darkened for a fleeting instant, then cleared. "Vallimrah then. I can jump the three of us, maybe two others as far as the Oak of Sorrows. It will leave me exhausted. We will need to pick up supplies and horses there."

  "Can we take anything with us?"

  "Small backpacks, weapons. Nothing more. I wouldn't tell anyone about her relationship to Margren. Skree would cut her throat. He's rabid about anyone involved with the sa'necari."

  "You just became my cousin Dree. On my lasah's side. Can you handle that?"

  Dree smiled. "Yes."

  * * * *

  Galee joined the Grand Master in his study, carrying a satchel on her arm. "I've returned with the medicine. The bi-kyndi can be tamed. Talons can now continue your lineage."

  "Good," he said, looking up from some papers. The knowledge that his lineage would not end with Talons reassured him. He regretted having to break his promise to her of a love-match and force her into a political union. But relief and joy overwhelmed his regrets. He felt a deep gratitude to Galee. She acted as his lord lieutenant in the Guild, but she was not truly Guild. He had given Galee her position thirty years ago by fiat. It was a good decision, although both Hanadi and Mohanja had opposed it. She had just served him in a way that no one else could have.

  "I think you should encourage them to sleep together before the wedding, to test it."

  "That's not a choice I can make for her, Galee."

  "But you will suggest it?'

  "If it makes you happy, Galee, I will suggest it."

  "After all the trouble I went to to get it, I'd rather it did not sit on the shelf for the next six months."

  "As you wish, now go away. I am tired."

  Galee turned and bowed herself from the room. Once outside her lips curved into a smirk. Yes, I imagine you are tired ... and you'll get tireder and tireder.

  * * * *

  Jysy and her three companions walked quickly toward the suites held by Lord Wrathscar. Another student came on them in the hallway.

  "Jysy," the newcomer told her, "Arruth fell on the stairs, she's in your rooms. The healer put her to bed. I think you ought to get over to them."

  Jysy looked stricken. "He hurt her."

  The newcomer shook his head. "No. He just wanted to talk to her but she bolted and fell on the stairs."

  Jysy started to protest, but Jimi hushed her. "Come on." They broke into a run.

  They found the healer just settling Arruth into bed. Being Talons' protégés, the two youths had a suite of rooms near hers in the west wing, the best wing of the castle. As soon as the healer was finished, Jimi turned to the other boys. "W
ait in the parlor," he told them.

  They obeyed and withdrew,

  Jimi closed the door, and then threw the blankets back. He started removing Arruth's clothes.

  "What are you doing?" Jysy demanded suspiciously.

  "Looking for something."

  "What?"

  Jimi raised his hand and thumbed a large ring on his forefinger, a needle appeared. A tiny drop of fluid beaded on the needle. "A tiny spot that could have been made by something like this, somewhere no one would look and only a lifemage could find the shit in her."

  Jysy set to undressing her sister completely and searching her body. Jimi went through her under clothes. He was about to give up when he found a tiny spot of blood on her under pants. It was so tiny no one would have thought any thing of it if they had not been looking for it.

  "Jysy." He extended the underwear to the girl. His thumb right next to the blood.

  Jysy looked up at him frowning.

  "They probably did it in the thatch," he said, looking down at the wealth of dark hair covering Arruth's loins. "We'll never find the entry point."

  "Is she poisoned?" Jysy felt frightened. Until then their campaign against Bryndel had been a simple lark–suddenly it had turned dark and dangerous.

  "No, the healer would have found that. It was probably something to block her memories, so she could not tell what they discussed with her. Bryndel probably hit her. Bastard!"

  "I ... I can't believe ... the Grand Master would ... would force Talons to marry someone like that."

  "Just between you, me, and the doorpost, Jysy," Jimi told her in quiet, low tones, "there's rumors, he's sick. Healers are calling it old age."

  "Poison?"

  "No. Readers would catch that. It's something else. They might be right, but I don't think so. Talons' last four cousins died together when an avalanche destroyed their winter hunting lodge. The other one disappeared on assignment. It happens. And avalanches happen. But it's too pat. Now politics are in full swing." Jimi covered Arruth with a blanket.

  "What do I do?" Jysy asked.

  "Not you. We. Come on, Tulik will stay with your sister. I think it's time you met the Knights."

  "Knights? You have knights?"

  "We call ourselves the Knights of Shining Justice."

  Jysy thought about that. "Sounds kizmeigo."

  Jimi flushed. "Yeah... I mean, I guess so. Kind of pompous? But we're not kizmeigo. Not really. I mean."

  "That's okay," Jysy took his hand and patted it. She leaned in and kissed him full on the lips, feeling him go weak-kneed.

  He recovered himself and said, "Come on."

  * * * *

  Talons sat with Bryndel in the Music Chamber, a cabaret and canteen maintained to keep the students on campus. A stage dominated the north end with round tables in the middle and booths along the edges. The Guild did not want their holy assassins-in-training wandering the city until they knew whether Hadjys would confirm them or not.

  "I have the medicine. I thought maybe you'd consider..."

  "Sleeping with you? No. I don't want you. This is being forced on me. You will wait for the wedding before trying to climb between my legs."

  "Talons, please, I love you."

  Talons gave him a long, hard stare, rose and swept out onto a balcony. She leaned on the railing, looking down on the quad, watching students crossing; the scattered groups of nobility standing among the trees and flowering shrubs, deep in conversation; the ever present guards around the edges. She sucked in deep breaths, surprised to find herself shaking with anger. She had not found herself in a situation – at least since early childhood – that could provoke a reaction like this. Her grandsire had suggested she try the medicine. Then Galee had. She felt furious over it. I'm supposed to be nice to him. They aren't making it any easier.

  "Talons?" Bryndel stepped out beside her, carrying two glasses of red wine. "I apologize. Maybe we could just talk."

  Talons forced herself to soften. She accepted the glass he extended to her and drank slowly. "This is not a love match."

  "I know. Are you in love with someone?"

  "Edouina. We were planning on a handfasting." Talons thought of the taste of her loins, the way her elegant hard body felt wrapped around her own. "Edouina." Even as she said it, her thoughts drifted to the irascible Dynarien. Edouina would approve of Dynarien – but not of Bryndel. Edouina would break Bryndel like so much kindling.

  "I thought all Sharani triaded."

  "Most do. If it were not for the problems with the bi-kyndi, we probably would have."

  "Would Edouina like me?" Bryndel asked, sounding hopeful.

  "I don't know. Are you suggesting we triad?"

  "If it would make you happier. Yes."

  "That would make me happier." Talons blinked, feeling dizzy, like the wine had gone to her head. She turned and her feet slipped, throwing her against Bryndel. He caught her.

  "I think you've had one too many," Bryndel told her, smiling oddly – almost smug.

  "I guess I have." Did he put something in the wine? The medicine? Talons' found her mind sliding away into an unfamiliar giddiness, her awareness blurring. Then she kissed him.

  * * * *

  Dree moved into Josiah's old room. She stayed in human form, as she needed to be able to communicate with the others and her cat form no longer offered her any protection since Margren knew where she was: she had sensed Margren's awareness of her the moment she left it. The catkin – in their cat forms – could not be scryed by anything short of a full oracle, and those people were rare: Her sons were safe from scrying so long as they remained kittens. But should they take human form, they could be found. Hah'nah, her clanmother, had promised to prevent their changing until they could be brought to safety in Vorgensburg or somewhere else along the northwest coast. Normally they learned to change in the same way that a human child learned to walk, by natural experimentation. Dree missed her kittens; they had just opened their eyes when she had to leave them. Another young mother had taken them to nurse with her own kittens. Dynarien used magic to dry up Dree's milk, concealing the existence of the kittens from Aejys' household.

  Aejys had gotten her a lute and she sat in the middle of the bed, playing soft, melancholy tunes, waiting for them to fetch her for the meeting of Rowanhart's council. Rowanhart. Dree liked that name. She had seen the new livery design, three rowans and a bounding, broad-antlered hart, and she liked that too. Aejys was everything Dree had once believed she had found in Margren: strength, steadfastness, and compassion. Thinking about it made her even sadder and her chording reflected it. Either those things had never been there and she had imagined it in her emotional neediness; or she had simply not been able to give Margren enough love and so she had changed; or Margren had deceived her and she had fallen for the deception. Her thoughts and feelings danced through those possibilities like her hands across the strings. The first two brought feelings of shame and the last of anger. She could not hold onto any one of them for long. Hah'nah told her she would sort it out eventually, that such things took time, but Dree found that advice to be poor comfort.

  A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.

  "Come in," Dree said.

  Omer stepped in. "They're ready for you, Dree."

  Dree settled the lute among the pillows and slid off the bed.

  "That was awfully sad music," Omer said.

  Dree nodded. "That's how I feel."

  "They're not going to hurt you."

  Dree shook her head. "Wasn't what I was thinking about."

  She followed Omer down the hall to the main meeting room.

  Aejys sat at the head, flanked by Josiah and Skree. Taun sat between Skree and Omer; Becca sat beside Dree on Josiah's side of the table.

  Skree started the questions: he wanted to know everything leading up to Dree's finally revealing her true nature. Dree began by telling of the horrors of Dragonshead as she had witnessed and experienced them. By the time he finished interroga
ting her, Dree was in tears.

  "I think we should break," Becca said, putting a comforting arm around Dree. "We don't punish the victims here."

  "But we need to know they are indeed victims," Skree responded.

  "Dynarien would not have sent her if she was a threat," Aejys pointed out, rising from the table and joining Becca at the end. The paladin took Dree into her arms and held her a long time, letting her cry herself out. "I know what you're feeling. I once loved Margren, also."

  Josiah sat down beside Aejys.

  Aejys looked up at his touch. "I want you to take her to the Willowhorn. I could not enter, but Dree can. You stay with her, every minute. You can enter also."

  "That's going to add two more days to our departure."

  "I know. But Dree needs to work some things out before she will be the kind of help we will need on this little sally."

  "Okay."

  "Go now. Don't waste a minute."

  "This will help me?" Dree asked.

  "Yes."

  "One horse. I'll take cat form so Margren cannot track us."

  "Smart girl," Josiah said.

  Dree wiped her tears, slipped from Aejys' arms, and dropped to the floor. Her form shimmered, went transparent, then solid. The little calico cat was back.

  * * * *

  Josiah rode hard this time with Dree perched on his shoulder. They reached the Willowhorn by early afternoon. The priest was sitting in the glade, weaving a necklace of flowers and grass.

  She took them to a small scrying pool behind the waterfall. With a wave and a word, a picture appeared and a story unfolded. They saw Margren and Aejys, the former just six years old, the latter ten. They saw them playing with other children in a snow castle. Aejys decided to play something else. Margren begged them to stay in the snow castle, but Aejys won out and the children followed her off leaving Margren behind.

  An older child appeared, a boy of about eleven. He had not been with the original group. He held Margren for a while, and then led her off into the shelter of a wayward pine. He nuzzled the little girl's neck. His fangs flashed, and then sank into Margren's neck. The scene changed several times, showing always a winter landscape and the boy, Mephistis, and Margren each time a little older. Each time he took blood from her.