The Crimson League (The Herezoth Trilogy)

by Grefer, Victoria

  Someone came tromping through the forest. Kora recognized Bidd’s blundering ways and made herself stand. He was the first of the teenage boys to rush into the clearing.

  “Kora.” His eyes looked abnormally large. Bushes had scratched his arms and torn the side of his tunic. “Kora, are you all right?”

  “I’m alive, thanks to you.”

  Menikas clapped him on the shoulder. “That was some shot.”

  “Who did he kill?” asked Hal, pulling stray twigs from his mess of curls.

  “Zalski’s general,” said Kora.

  Hayden’s face lightened two shades. The tote he carried tumbled from his arms, and he said, “We were on our way back when we saw the uniforms, at the steps. We were still a ways off, but something wasn’t right, so we pulled out our bows. We always have them on us.”

  Menikas nodded. “Now you know why.”

  “We climbed a fire escape the next street over. Clambered to the roof, and that was when we saw Kansten. The guards heard Hal gasp, so Hal and I, we had to shoot them. And then Bidd saw….”

  “I looked in the apartment,” said Bidd. “I saw what that man was doing to Kora, so I shot. I thought I might hit her, but under the circumstances….” He looked around. “Where’s Bendelof? Kora, where’s Bennie?”

  “They took her away,” said Menikas. “And Zacry.”

  “You’re joking,” said Hal.

  “Do I look like I’m joking? Did you not see what they did to Kansten?”

  “Is there…?” Hayden sank down. “Is there no way we can…?”

  “Rescue them?” said Menikas. “I wish there were.”

  Kora, feeling faint, leaned back against her tree again. She tuned out the voices around her and fingered Petroc’s chain. Only death could break the connection, the sorcerer had told her. Well, Alten Grombach was dead.

  Kora hesitated, not wanting to wear the chain Alten had used to strangle her, unwilling to forge the magical link she knew she must, the link she had shied from at the first. She took a steadying breath.

  “What else have you learned?”

  Zalski lounged in his parlor, leaning forward to show interest, while Zacry clutched a glass of ice water so tightly his knuckles turned white.

  “I can cast Estatua. And I know a shield spell, but you, you saw it, it’s weak.”

  “You’ve the start of a nice repertoire. It’s heavy, I notice, in defense.”

  “I only know what Kora taught me.”

  “Your sister’s wise. The world rejects the magicked. I can start your instruction next week, if all goes well. We’ll continue defensive training.”

  Zacry looked unsure whether to be awed or terrified. Terror won out when Malzin walked in. “Did you find him a room?” Zalski asked.

  “I thought to let Zacry decide. Would you prefer a tower room—the view is spectacular, you can see the entire city just about—or one more spacious with a window over the stables?”

  “The stables,” Zacry mumbled.

  The practical choice. Good man.

  “If you’re ready, I’ll show you to it,” Malzin offered. “I think you’ll be impressed.”

  “Is there anything you’d like?” asked Zalski. Zacry took a deep breath. He put down his half-filled glass, and spoke clearly.

  “How about to leave?”

  “I’m afraid that’s not possible. I won’t set you on the streets to starve.”

  Zacry thought for a moment, and the barest trace of a light shone in his eyes. He said, “If I’m going to be here a while, I could use a grammar. And maybe a, a math tutor. If it isn’t too much trouble….”

  Zalski smiled. “Education’s never trouble. I’ll see some books are brought to you. You enjoy reading?”

  “I’ve heard it’s recommended.”

  “Come along,” said Malzin.

  “Don’t touch the boy,” Zalski directed. “He knows of your power, as does the entire kingdom. I don’t want him believing we’re abusing his stay with us.”

  Malzin shepherded Zacry out the door, and he let himself be led. What else could he do?

  The boy’s got spirit, and potential to spare. He’s lucky it won’t be squandered in one of their so-called safehomes. Even Miss Porteg recognized his talent. Why else store him with her cohorts? If it’s defensive magic she wants for him, defensive magic he’ll have, at least to start. He needs to acclimate himself.

  Zalski stood up.

  I should see how Miss Esper’s adjusting. Though it’s useless to have her here while the book eludes me still. Still! Damn them, damn every one of them! Infiltrating their cabin here produced nothing, but this time I was certain….

  Perhaps the girl will prove helpful. But I doubt it.

  Trasporte.

  The sorcerer spoke the last word aloud, and moved to a bedroom in one of the towers: apparently, to transport within the Palace itself was not a problem. Mostly empty, the space seemed larger than it was. A rug tinted black covered part of the stone floor, and the walls, also stone, were bare with a single window two feet in height but a mere two inches wide. A four-poster bed with a thick woolen blanket was the only furniture. Bendelof sat in the corner, bound by familiar purple ropes now instead of the original twine, tensing when Zalski appeared in front of her.

  “Are the accommodations to your liking?”

  Bendelof admitted, “They’re not what I expected.”

  “Yes, well, to put you in a cell would require the public jail, which I don’t consider secure enough for a prisoner of your caliber.”

  “My caliber? What caliber? I’m a farm girl.”

  “You’re a Leaguesman. Which makes you of immense importance.”

  “I’m not in the prince’s circle. I don’t know his personal dealings. I don’t know where the Librette is.”

  “I’m sure my sister’s told no one where she hides it.”

  “Your sister?” Bendelof stared at the sorcerer with knitted brow, and he stepped in the room’s one beam of sunlight. Bennie shook her head confusedly. Then she noticed his eyes, cold, ice blue, and her mouth fell open. “Laskenay….”

  “You see how she keeps her secrets close.”

  “Then you’ll believe me when I say I know very little. I don’t…. Laskenay…. I had no idea, not the faintest ide—”

  “Miss Esper, you know more than you believe. Or more than you let on, perhaps. We’ll know which soon enough.” Zalski drew two stones from his pocket. The first was fluorescent green and rough-hewn. “Do you recognize this ore?”

  Bennie shook her head.

  “Mindstone. Under proper conditions it will open your life, your memory, to my perusal. And this….”

  “It looks like a ruby.”

  “So it is. A ruby enchanted by a desperate woman centuries before Hansrelto’s revolt. She wanted to cheat death from stealing her beloved.”

  “The Lifestone,” breathed Bennie.

  “You know of it?”

  “I heard its story, as a child. We thought it was an old wives’ tale.”

  “The stone is real. I tracked it to the Hall of Sorcery, where it was masquerading as what you called it, a simple ruby, one among many in the outer wall. It will keep you alive while I employ the mindstone.”

  Bendelof shrunk into herself, but her voice was composed. “And the proper conditions?”

  “There’s the frustration.” Zalski took to pacing. “I still lack a spell potent enough to create them. I don’t trust myself to write one, as the necessities are too many and too complex. I know, however, that such magic exists. In the Librette Oscure.

  “You’ve been with the League two years. There’s no doubt, none, that with your information I could crush their enterprises so spectacularly no one would dare oppose me again. All I need is the book. And make no mistake, Miss Esper, I will find that book. There are only so many places my sister would leave it. The day it falls in my possession is a bleak day for you. What is your age?”

  “Seventeen.”


  “You have an entire life ahead of you. If you wish to see it out, I suggest you consider imparting your knowledge freely.”

  Bennie’s voice began to shake. “That won’t be possible.”

  “It most certainly is possible. That doesn’t mean you’ll speak, of course. You won’t, and I acknowledge your loyalty. It’s a virtue all too lacking in the world. I merely wanted to inform your decision. What you will: it’s all the same to me.”

  Bendelof did not respond. Zalski stopped his pacing to look at her.

  “Well?” he said.

  The Leaguesman sounded desperate now. “Well, what? What do you want from me?”

  “This is when you deny I’ll find the spellbook, no? When you rattle off the reasons I won’t succeed and predict my gruesome death at the hands of your cohorts.”

  Bennie mastered herself. Her voice was soft, unsure, but did not break. “I imagine you’ll die tucked comfortably in bed. Of old age. Your power, it’s more secure than ever. The League’s name’s sullied more every day. You stopped the Letter, but your papers, and your guards, they’re everywhere in the cities, in this one, in Yangerton…. My guess is you’ll rule another fifty years and live ten more after that.”

  “I see. Anything else?”

  “If you wouldn’t mind….” She glanced down at her bonds. “You’ll magically seal the door. I can’t escape, or attack you. What good would that do me?”

  “Desfazair.”

  Bendelof remained seated in her corner, rubbing her newly freed wrists.

  “One last piece of business,” said Zalski, and Bendelof looked up. “My wife and general know why I seek the Librette. They alone know of the Lifestone, and I’m content with the status quo. I have no deep grudge against you. But the fact remains, to keep a Leaguesman captive with no signs of interrogation, my men will think I’ve gone soft. Or insane. Servants snoop, it might as well be written in their job descriptions. They’ll find out about you, and I can’t have my reputation compromised.”

  Bendelof’s eyes grew large. She braced herself against the wall.

  “This is nothing compared to what I’ll do if I learn you’ve told a servant why you’re here. And I’ll learn of it…. Don’t look so spineless! This spell comes from a friend of yours. I don’t suspect there’s more pain than a brief stinging. Cegara!”

  Bendelof cried out, grabbed at her eyes and squinted tight, her cheeks red. Then she blinked several times, turning her head in all directions. An expression of confusion, then dumbfoundedness crossed her face.

  “I can’t see….”

  * * *

  “He just…. My God, he blinded Bennie.”

  “What?!” said Hal. Bidd pummeled a tree.

  “You mean Zalski?” said Hayden. “How do you know?”

  Menikas took a step toward Kora. “You forged a second connection? Another connection without consulting me?”

  Kora straightened up. “This magic is mine. I fought for it, I won it, and I won’t let anyone tell me how to use it. Laskenay never would. Your brother didn’t, and he actually had a right to give his input. He helped me get the chain. I’m sorry you have a problem with me making my own decisions, but I don’t remember taking an oath to turn every last one of them over to your royal highness.”

  “Uncalled for, Porteg.”

  “How I use my chain is not your business. Everything’s not about you, you domineering….”

  Laskenay, Neslan, and Lanokas materialized in the middle of the clearing. The sorceress spoke with a voice oddly quiet, to the point that Kora could barely hear her.

  “What is Alten Grombach doing in our rooms?”

  “Rone betrayed us,” said Menikas. “He….”

  “I’ll tell them. I’m the one who saw it all.”

  Menikas sent Kora an icy glare, while Neslan looked exactly as if someone had punched him in the stomach. He said, “What happened to Kansten?”

  Lanokas jumped forward when he laid eyes on Kora. “What happened to your neck? Are you hurt?” Laskenay put a hand on each of their shoulders, and Kora launched into a description of the day’s events. Laskenay pursed her lips when she learned of Galisan’s murder; Neslan, in contrast, stood slack-jawed, and Lanokas kept on staring at the bruises on Kora’s throat. Kansten’s death surprised no one, as they had all seen her body, but Laskenay’s manner changed when she learned Malzin had been her killer. Her expression turned wooden, her ice blue eyes hard as crystal, and she squashed with great vigor a mosquito that until then they had all been content to ignore. Neslan lost all color. He said:

  “You didn’t try to save her? Kora, you just watched?”

  “Tell them, Menikas. Tell them why I watched.”

  Menikas said, “Don’t be pert.”

  “Tell them how you knocked me to the ground and gagged me with my bandana.”

  Lanokas whirled to face his brother. “You did what?”

  “I saved her life, is what I did. She was going to rush in without a thought in her head. She hadn’t even turned invisible.”

  Lanokas rose to his full height. “She’s fought sorcerers before. She’s fought Zalski, which is more than you’ve done. She knew what awaited her. Menikas, you had no right. Hell!”

  “I had no right? Alten nearly killed her by his lonesome!”

  “Enough,” said Laskenay. She stepped between the brothers. “It’s done. A tactical decision was made, and no amount of squabbling will reverse it.”

  “Would you have stopped me?” Kora demanded.

  “My being with you would have changed the situation, you know that. My magic is infinitely stronger than that of Menikas.”

  “Do you think he should have stopped me?”

  “He did what he felt was right. You need to let this go.”

  “You didn’t see Zacry’s terror. The look on Kansten’s face when she, she thought Malzin would kill Bendelof to spite her.”

  Laskenay’s voice turned gentler, but was just as firm as before. “You have to let it go.”

  “He physically restrained me!”

  “For the moment, Kora, let it go. For the moment. Tell me, what happened next?”

  Kora obliged her mentor; she took the tale all the way through Zalski blinding Bennie. Hayden pushed his hair out his face as she finished, to hide the tear he wiped from the corner of his eye. Laskenay stared at the clouds as though praying for direction, at a loss as to what to do next for the first time since Kora had known her. Menikas observed, “The second apartment must be emptied.”

  Laskenay lowered her eyes to the piles of sacks and boxes at the clearing’s edge. She took a deep breath. “We’ll have to destroy most of what’s there. It won’t be of use, not if they discovered Galisan. Menikas, how will we warn his men?”

  “We’ll discuss that in a minute. Neslan, you’re coming with us. You can pack the bedroom. Lanokas, you’re in charge here. Bidd, why is your bow not out?”

  Menikas’s tone sent Bidd diving for his sack. Before he retrieved it, three of the League’s four nobles had disappeared.

  “What do we do now?” asked Hal.

  Lanokas said, “We wait. We wait for them, and hopefully for Ranler.”

  “And after that?” Bidd chimed in.

  “I have no earthly idea.” Lanokas grabbed one of the smaller towels from the box nearest him and drenched it with the water in his canteen. “For your neck,” he said, offering it to Kora. She took it wordlessly. The wetness soothed her throat.

  Bidd said, “She was brave, Kansten was.” He kicked the dirt. “I didn’t realize. I wouldn’t have ragged on her so much. She really spit at Zalski’s feet?”

  “Wow,” said Hal. “Wow. That takes guts.”

  “Kansten had a lot of those,” said Kora. She turned to Lanokas. “You remember when she stepped off that ledge? At Petroc’s mountain?”

  “That’s not easy to forget. It’ll be quiet, with her gone. And the world a little darker without Bennie. I haven’t wrapped my head around it, any of it
. And Zacry…. I’m sure he’s safe, Kora. He has to be.”

  “I hope so. God, I hope so. I’m so proud of him. He tried to fight, it was more than I did.”

  The prince’s expression darkened. “Oh, you tried. You just didn’t get as far. Where the hell my brother gets off….”

  “Asking for a grammar was Zac’s way of staying loyal. I was always trying to get him to take school seriously. He’s smart. He’s seen what Zalski’s rule’s done, and he’ll remember. He’ll remember. He won’t be blinded by Zalski’s favor.”

  Kora’s face turned white as her thoughts turned to Bendelof. Before anyone responded, Ranler, as scratched and ragged as Bidd, burst into the clearing.

  “Who was it? Who killed her?”

  “Malzin,” said Lanokas. “Rone’s a turncoat.”

  “I’ll kill him. Kill him. I will hunt him down and rip his traitor’s throat out.” Ranler paused, as though waiting for someone to protest, to tell him to calm down: someone specific. When no one did, he scanned the clearing.

  “They got Bennie, didn’t they? They got Bennie too. Shit!” He threw his sack to the ground.

  Lanokas told him, “She’s alive, and she’ll stay that way if we can keep the Librette from Zalski.”

  “Where is the Librette?” asked Ranler.

  “Wherever Laskenay stashed it.”

  Hayden interrupted. “I’m hungry,” he said. “I don’t mean to be crass, but I know I’m not the only one. We picked up some rations this morning. We can’t eat the potatoes, they’re raw, but the bread’s fresh. I’m not proposing a feast here. We haven’t got a feast. But starving ourselves won’t bring Kansten back, and we need our strength.”

  “Get the bread out,” said Neslan. Hayden gave Kora the first piece he broke off. Lanokas took the second and pulled her aside.

  “There’s no excuse for what Menikas did to you. But you can get even.”

  Kora glanced at the others as she swallowed her first painful bite. Bidd and Hal ate in silence, staring at the ground. Ranler was refusing sustenance. No one paid the sorceress the slightest attention.