“This is not even my war, not my land but I’m now helplessly involved against my better judgment and—”
“Involved? Why? Because I kissed you?”
Her expression turned wintry. “You flatter yourself.”
And now he did kiss her again. This time he meant it. There was nothing exploratory or tentative about his ardour; his embrace was tight and demanding. And Elka responded. She moved beneath his mouth, closing her eyes and melting around him. He felt as though he was losing himself and for the first time he wanted to.
He pulled away savagely, before it went too far. He glared at her. “Gavriel de Vis is a fool!” he growled and walked away, using the time to calm his mind.
Eventually he made his way back to where he was surprised to still find Ravan patiently waiting. Roddy sat encircled by Ravan’s long arms, rocking back and forth. As Loethar approached he stood, alarmed.
Janus was dozing, eyes closed and snoring lightly as if entirely bored by all the drama surrounding him.
“Why are you still here?” Loethar demanded, the seductive call of magic as repulsive as it was compulsive. He was using all of his inner strength to resist Roddy now and was deeply disappointed that the pair of them had not taken their chance at escape.
Loethar noted how Roddy looked toward his friend nervously. He watched Ravan gracefully unfold his long limbs to stand.
“I wouldn’t desert you, Loethar,” Ravan replied.
The words were so kind that they tore at Loethar’s heartstrings. No one but Vyk had ever stuck by him. And here was his bird—in a new form—still holding to their friendship even though Loethar had threatened his well-being.
“You should have escaped when you could.”
Ravan shook his head. “I knew you wouldn’t do it.”
“I would have!” Loethar insisted, angry that everyone was making presumptions about him.
Ravan’s expression didn’t shift. “Then why is Roddy standing here whole?”
There was no snappy, neat answer for that. How did he begin to explain that a giantess from the mountains had got beneath his skin and was now affecting his conscience, his way of thinking? Damn Elka and her high principles!
“Just go,” he said, waving his hand. “Roddy makes me feel sick and I know I do the same to him.”
Elka reappeared, throwing a soft, somewhat sheepish glance his way. He wasn’t sure what her look meant. He had no doubt that her emotions were as mixed and confused as his were. He watched her nudge Janus, who snorted awake.
“Ah, forgive me,” the doctor said. Then his eyes widened. “From this angle, Elka, your—”
“Janus!” she snapped and he flinched. “Get a hold of yourself. There’s a boy here.”
Janus looked mortified. “Forgive me,” he said, struggling to get to his feet, prompting Elka to sigh and help him. She hauled him upright.
“Just try thinking first.”
“I do,” he mewled. “It doesn’t help. I just catch sight of your big, perfectly sculpted br—” Her scowl stopped him but Loethar was sympathetic; Elka had a similar effect on him.
She turned, having regained control of her calm countenance, and looked to Roddy. “You are free to go. The Emperor will not claim you.”
Something bit at Loethar’s mind as she said this. “Wait!” Everyone turned nervously toward him. “You said you were promised to someone. There are only three Valisars that I’m aware of, which includes myself. But you denied you were meant for Leo or myself and it is obvious that Piven has no need for you.”
Roddy’s eyes lit up. But he glanced at Ravan first as though seeking permission. Loethar noticed the man give the boy a small nod.
“I am promised to the princess.”
“Princess?” Loethar murmured, his throat tightening.
“You explain, Ravan,” Roddy said. “I feel too dizzy and sick to talk anyway.”
Ravan obliged. “Your majesty, the daughter of Brennus and Iselda survived.”
Loethar looked at his old friend unblinking. He ran the words again through his mind and still they made no sense.
“Loethar?” Elka asked.
“That can’t be right. I saw the dead newborn. I watched the tiny girl cremated. I witnessed Iselda casting her daughter’s ashes to the four winds from the palace battlements.”
“I was there too, majesty. Except that was not the royal child. It was a newborn girl, yes, but not the daughter of the Valisars. The princess was secreted away to safety on the night of her birth, before you’d even reached the gates of Brighthelm.”
Loethar gave a groan. He walked away a few paces, then he spun around again, pointing.
“Tell me everything!”
Ravan nodded. “I will tell you what I know. Corbel de Vis was charged with the task of getting the princess away to safety. I have no idea where she was taken. King Brennus made the arrangements.”
Loethar’s gaze narrowed. “No woman could feign the heartbreak I watched Iselda go through. I saw her change from a strong, courageous queen into a shell of a woman.”
“The queen’s grief was likely real, your majesty. She believed that the child she cremated was her daughter. I think it was the losses of both the princess and her precious Leo that gave her the excuse to die.”
Loethar looked at Ravan, aghast, as he let the concept settle into his mind. Then he turned to Elka. “And you think I’m cruel. I can’t hold a candle to my half-brother Brennus,” he snarled. “Did he kill a child for the ruse?”
Ravan nodded. “I believe he did, though he did not dirty his own hands with the deed.”
“No, of course he wouldn’t.” Once again he turned to Elka. “This is the king you all admired. The king the whole Set looked up to and took its lead from. The king everyone mourned. He is as guilty as killing innocents as I am. But at least I did it honestly. Everyone saw my bloodied blade. I was at war. Brennus was simply a murderer!”
Elka swallowed and took a few steps toward him, laying a hand on his arm. “It’s why you must not walk away from this. No one knows the truth. The real story is only now emerging. Your agile mind is every bit as clever and cunning as Brennus’s. People should know that you are Valisar and that you are the rightful heir to the throne, that Brennus effectively stole it from you.”
Loethar blinked. The notion wasn’t new but when it was put to him as Elka had just outlined, he could suddenly believe that Brennus was the villain of the tale, not him.
She hadn’t finished. “We’ve now got four people on the loose who all think they have a right to rule. But only one of them has proven he can, has absolute right on his side, and frankly is the best Valisar to sit that throne.”
“The princess didn’t choose to oppose you,” Ravan counseled.
“That’s right,” Roddy said. “She can only be ten anni. She probably doesn’t understand any of this.”
“I’m not levelling any blame at the child. She was another of Brennus’s pawns. Even Leonel is a pawn. He didn’t choose this path—his father pushed him onto it. Piven . . .” He shook his head. “Piven I don’t understand. I had a bond with that boy. I couldn’t bring myself to kill him even though I knew I should.”
“So you humiliated him,” Ravan remarked, no accusation in it but also no tenderness.
“That was the excuse I used. Valya, Stracker, even my mother would have happily had him smothered, not because he was an invalid but because he was linked to the Valisars. But I couldn’t hurt that child. There was something so intriguing and charming about him. I grieved at his loss.”
Ravan shrugged. “Well, now he’s your enemy, Loethar. Don’t be fooled. Piven is not the sweet smiling innocent you remember. He walks in the body of a youth but he has the mind of a wily old man.”
“And now he has his aegis,” Loethar murmured. “Be on your way, Roddy. Go find your princess and give her your magical protection if you still wish to. In all of this mess, she is truly the innocent.”
Roddy stared at him. �
��Although you make me feel so sick you really aren’t nearly as frightening as I thought.”
“It must be my handsome looks,” Loethar said and caught Elka’s smirk. Even Ravan chuckled silently.
“No, that’s not it,” Roddy continued, sounding serious. “I just don’t think you were ever as bad as you were said to be. You did a very good job of making everyone fear you.”
Loethar gave a lopsided smirk. “I did, didn’t I?”
“Er, well, you killed several thousand people,” Elka reminded.
“Stracker did most of the killing,” Loethar said absently. “But yes, I am responsible for it. I planned it. I sanctioned it.”
“The thing I’m trying to say,” Roddy said, looking exasperated, “is that I don’t think the Princess needs protection as much as you do.”
Loethar’s gaze flicked back to the boy. “What are you saying?”
“You are not a bad man. Not as bad as I have always thought, anyway. You let me go. What would you do right now, if you could do anything?”
Loethar frowned. “I would leave this empire to Leonel and Piven to fight it out. I would find the princess and take her to safety; she is the only kin I have who might give me a chance at being part of a family. And I would disappear.” He saw Elka’s chest swelling; she was preparing to launch a fresh tirade. He wanted to smile because Janus saw it too and his eyes were nearly out on stalks. “But,” he said, holding a hand in the air to her, “Elka will not permit that. So, taking her wishes into account, I would still protect the princess. But I would also likely find myself doing battle with my two nephews because I don’t think either of them is a suitable ruler. And . . . I would kill my half-brother, Stracker. His death has long beckoned and I am the right person to deliver it.”
He threw his hands up in the air, wincing at the pain in his shoulder. “But this discussion is of no consequence. Go, you two. Find your princess and run away with her. Keep her safe while her two brothers fight it out using their famed Valisar magic. Janus, thank you. Elka . . .” He hesitated. “I hope our paths cross again.” It sounded pathetic even to his ears but he really didn’t know what to say to her. “I hope you can find de Vis again. Tell him I’m impressed he let Ravan and Roddy go.”
“Tell him yourself!” she snapped. “You are not just walking away from this.”
“I don’t know what you expect of me, Elka. I am not in a position to do—”
“With me as your aegis, you will be,” Roddy said, cutting across Loethar’s words.
The boy’s words silenced everyone.
Finally, Ravan spoke up. “Did I mention that Roddy is a very brave soul?” he asked conversationally.
“I absolutely will not agree to this.” Elka’s words cut off Loethar’s reply.
“Giant! This is not your decision!” Roddy hurled at her. “Ravan and I have discussed it. We want to do this.” He pointed at Loethar. “I want your word that you will help the princess.”
Loethar’s eyes squinted as he focused only on Roddy.
“I will give myself to you if you share the same cause as us,” the boy said. Glancing at Ravan, he continued. “I won’t be giving up my life, just my freedom. And freedom is a sacrifice I’m prepared to make for the princess, for Cyrena, for Sergius who died so terribly, for the man called Clovis.” He pointed at Loethar. “He can make everyone feel safe because he wants the barbarians and Denovians to live as one. It’s his half-brother who wants them still at war. And Leo would want the same. Piven . . . I don’t know what Piven wants.”
Ravan joined in. “Piven wants chaos, I think. He has no conscience.”
Elka turned to face Loethar. “Not this way. Please, Loethar . . . he’s just eleven anni.”
Loethar felt trapped by their individual demands. It was Janus who broke the standoff.
“Elka, I’ve been thinking, while I would gladly chew your toenails—”
“Not now, Janus,” she hissed at him, looking fraught. “Can’t you just for once measure your words?”
He blinked, stung by her waspish attack. “But, Elka, it’s a good idea,” he stammered. Then he straightened. “I may have a disease but that doesn’t mean I can’t offer up useful—”
“Be quiet, Janus. My patience with your lewd comments is sorely tested,” she warned.
He wasn’t to be deterred, though. “Go ahead, then, maim the boy—but don’t ask me to clean up the mess,” he said, waving his hands as though tired of all of them. “It was good feeling needed but as usual my ailment has trespassed. Farewell, all. I shall try not to miss your breasts, Elka. By the way, that last comment wasn’t my illness talking!” He made another dismissive gesture and began walking away.
“Wait, Janus!” Loethar called. “Lo strike me! Why didn’t I think of such a simple solution?”
“What are you talking about?” Elka said, looking between them.
“I understand,” Ravan said, nodding to himself. “Why shouldn’t it work?”
“What?” Elka demanded.
Loethar moved to her and calmed her rising fury with a hand on her arm. “I consume something non-fleshy from Roddy’s body.”
Dawning spread across her face. “Like a toenail,” she finished, sounding embarrassed.
“If Janus is right then there is no need to hurt Roddy.”
“But he still loses his freedom,” she persisted in a much smaller voice now.
“That is true. It’s up to Roddy now.”
Roddy shrugged. “I had no other plans,” he admitted, prompting Loethar and Ravan to share a sad smile. “At least this way my life becomes exciting, even important. I’ll make my mother very proud. Protector of the emperor!” he said, triumphantly jabbing a small fist in the air.
“Oh, Roddy,” Elka said, and Loethar noticed her eyes were misty.
“I won’t hurt him, I promise you, Elka,” Loethar said. “And I’ll abide by your wishes,” he added before nodding at Roddy, “and his rules.”
He gave her an encouraging small smile as he squeezed her arm and then walked over to Roddy, amazed by the powerful surge of desire and nausea. He crouched on his haunches before the child.
“I know this is as hard on your health as it is mine, Roddy, so let’s do this quickly before we both start rushing for the bushes again. Are we in agreement?”
Very solemnly and clearly fighting his own revulsion, Roddy nodded. “We are.”
Loethar held out a hand and Roddy placed his small one in it. Surprising himself as much as everyone around him, Loethar changed position so he was kneeling before Roddy and then pulled the boy to him and hugged him. “I kneel humbly before the bravest person I have ever met. We will do only good things with our magic, I promise.”
Roddy hugged him hard back and Loethar felt choked by the affection and the youngster’s trust.
“We’d better hurry,” he said. “I think I’m going to vomit!”
Chapter Seventeen
They’d remained in disguise and booked themselves into a room at an inn that was so far on the outskirts of Penraven’s main streets that in Kilt’s opinion it shouldn’t rightly call itself the city’s “Northern Gate Inn.” It would take a guest the better part of a bell to walk to the northern gate proper, which meant the inn was closer to Gormand’s border than to Brighthelm.
“Why here?” Kilt asked, somewhat ungratefully.
“Here is as good as any,” the big man answered, handing him a mug. “Keep drinking. The nausea passed last time because we kept you topped up with lots of water.”
“There is no nausea. I told you, I just felt dizzy momentarily in the presence of the magic. But it passed very swiftly. I think it was shock that undid me.”
“Nevertheless,” Jewd persisted. “Lily always says that water is the best tonic.”
“I can’t imagine what is happening to her.”
“Then don’t try. Whoever that was interrupted for a reason; for now I think we can count on her being alive.”
Kilt looked back a
t him in disbelief. “Why? How can you make such a dangerously sweeping presumption?”
Jewd sat down opposite Kilt on the other small cot. “Because the timing was too critical for whoever that was to not intentionally be saving her life.”
Kilt grunted his acceptance of Jewd’s logic. “It was a Valisar, I tell you.”
“Then it has to be Leo. It couldn’t have been Loethar—he’s badly injured and the people and Stracker would have recognized him. And you’d be writhing in a gutter.”
“Unless he’s got access to magic. I’m pretty sure I read something at the Academy that said once bonded the Valisar magic doesn’t search out any other aegis. I think that’s right.” He shrugged. “The sickness didn’t linger, Jewd. I recognized it and I think I panicked.”
“Not like you to panic,” Jewd replied.
“I’ve never been under threat of being eaten before.”
“It was a younger voice, Kilt. Loethar speaks softly, his voice low and mellow. This had the pitch of a much younger person, even a squeak in it as though the voice was newly broken. Come on, think clearly now.”
Kilt nodded. “But Leo’s voice is fully broken.”
“Agreed,” Jewd said. “But it sounded more like Leo than Loethar, right? And he knows and cares for Lily, which might explain why she was saved. So she’s safe for now and more to the point, so are you.”
“Still, you didn’t have to insist on us coming this far away,” Kilt said, looking unappreciatively around the room.
“You weren’t making any decisions.”
“I was confused.”
“Same thing! Totally unhelpful, so stop complaining. In any event, we are not going back into the city. Someone may be there who could butcher you and commit you to a living death. I don’t care if it didn’t feel threatening.”
“It didn’t. It actually—”
Jewd ignored the protest. “We don’t risk it. Are we agreed on this?”
Kilt nodded.
“All right, so that leaves us with the choice of heading west, or sitting around in disguise and hoping we can spot Lily heading back.”
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