The Crimson League (The Herezoth Trilogy)

by Grefer, Victoria

  “I’m sorry,” said Hayden, “but….” His cousin groaned. “Shut up, Bidd, this is important. I don’t speak up a lot, all right?”

  “You should speak up more often,” said Kora. “You’re not alone in your doubts. Go on, Hayden.”

  “No, I’m done. I’m not convinced, is all I want to say.”

  “Could we turn Argint to our side?” asked Neslan.

  Menikas said, “No chance. He knows I’m alive, and my brother. He’s one of the few I’d stake my life who does. He was always one of Zalski’s trusted elites. If he hasn’t reached out by now, there’s a reason. He’s no interest in our welfare. He considers the bigger picture.”

  “What bigger picture?” said Kora.

  “Zalski respects the military more than my father did. The king took their loyalty and service for granted. Zalski doesn’t.”

  “Well, then,” said Neslan, “suppose we kill Zalski and Argint seizes power. He’s moderate, you say. I’ll take you at your word. What’s to stop an extremist group in the army ranks from killing him? From taking over? They’d be more oppressive than Zalski.”

  “There are always hypotheticals,” protested Menikas.

  Neslan said, “Hypotheticals? I’ve studied history. Some factions in the army have crazy ideas. I want no part in giving them control.”

  “Do I have to remind you of all people we’re not fighting to crown Argint?”

  “No,” said Kora, “we’re trying to crown you. And frankly, I’d appreciate it if you acknowledged that once in a while. None of us wants to be here.”

  “Wants to be here? Do you think I want to be here?”

  “When did I say that? When did I say that, Menikas?”

  “Stop,” said Neslan. He clambered to his feet. “Stop, both of you. I just had an idea. An insane idea. But that’s the genius of it, he’d never suspect…. Hear me out, that’s all I ask.”

  “Go on,” prompted Laskenay.

  Neslan said, “Maybe we shouldn’t wait for Zalski to come to us. To come to Fontferry. Maybe we should go to Zalski.”

  “What?” said Hal.

  “I don’t follow,” said Laskenay.

  Neslan asked, “How did Zalski’s coup succeed? He took it slowly, worked in stages. And he started….”

  “With the Crystal Palace,” said Lanokas.

  Hayden coughed, pounding his chest. Menikas turned from Neslan to Hayden back to Neslan. Laskenay, distraught, ran a hand through her hair. Kora said, “You’re not seriously suggesting we attack the Palace?”

  “If we’re careful, smart, and fast, we can do this. Who knows that building better than Menikas? Than Lanokas? We can’t logically expect more than to know the terrain we fight on, can we? With their familiarity and Kora’s insight into Zalski…. I’ll say it again, Zalski started with the Palace.”

  “Zalski had the general behind him,” said Laskenay.

  “So will we. If we capture the Palace, if we cut Zalski down, didn’t Menikas just say that Argint would restore the royal family? Is it suicide to a greater degree, attacking in Podrar and not at the Tricentennial?”

  “YES!” cried Hal and Ranler.

  “I’m not sure,” said Kora. Her heart was beating strangely fast. “I’m really not sure. Zalski’s less accessible at the Palace, we know that. And he, he has that system of warning crystals. Do we know how far they extend?”

  “We don’t,” said Lanokas.

  “Well,” said Kora, “at the Palace, if we can get to Zalski and guard the outer doors, we’ve got him. He’ll have trapped himself. He can’t transport away, not from inside the walls.”

  “Neither can we!” said Ranler, but Lanokas contested his point.

  “The trade-off works to our favor. Capturing a sorcerer in the open? There’s no chance, not if he’s skilled. Let me put it bluntly: Zalski’s nothing if not skilled. Anything we can do to limit his options….”

  Ranler argued, “You’re assuming we’ll get near him. We won’t last five minutes. The Palace is crawling with his men.”

  Hayden said, “I don’t know anything about that. But there’d be smaller chance of our hurting innocents at the Palace, wouldn’t there? There’ll be townsfolk all over the Tricentennial. They could get hurt. They could interfere.”

  Ranler, ignoring Hayden, turned directly to the crown prince. “You’re not considering this madness?”

  Neslan argued, “I’m not claiming that it’s sane. I just don’t see how it’s madder than planning for a final stand in Fontferry. If we’re going to attack, attacking the Crystal Palace has advantages. Don’t you realize that?”

  “I’ve thought about the prospect,” said Menikas. “I never considered it seriously.”

  A hint of fanaticism gleamed in Neslan’s eye. “He’s holding Bennie there. And Zacry. What better way to rescue Zacry than to strike and take him back? You just said we should make him our cause. What was that, rhetoric?”

  “I meant every word. If we infiltrate the Palace, don’t you think Zalski would hold them hostage? If he doesn’t kill them outright?”

  “I don’t believe for a second he’d kill Zacry. No more do you. I’m telling you, if we find a way in….”

  Menikas’s voice came slowly. Painfully. “If we find a way in, our chances go up exponentially as compared with other locations.”

  Neslan hardly believed his ears. “You’re for this? You’re actually for this?”

  “If we have to make a stand,” said Menikas, “I could be. Laskenay?”

  “If we plan it masterfully,” she said. “That means we draw floor plans. Which everyone memorizes. We leave nothing we can control to chance.”

  “Unbelievable,” said Ranler. He punched the floor. “Menikas, you’re agreeing to this shit?”

  “I’m saying I’ll consider it. Laskenay and I need to talk.”

  Laskenay put a silencing hand on the prince’s shoulder. “Everyone should express their thoughts first. Their concerns. Neslan, you’ve made it clear what you hope to do, why don’t you sit like the rest of us?” Neslan did so. Lanokas spoke next.

  “Neslan’s right, the question isn’t whether we’ll succeed at the Crystal Palace. The question is whether we’re less likely to succeed there than elsewhere. I don’t know that we are. The other thing I’d like to propose is this: if we’re looking to make a statement, going after Zalski in his stolen seat of power is a strong one.”

  “You’re ignoring Bennie,” Ranler accused. “All of you. We attack the Palace, and Zalski kills her before we get to her. She was my apprentice, and I’ll be damned if we just….”

  Kora spoke over him. “When did you start tracking Zalski? I think that falls to me. You can’t know he’d kill her. He has plans for her, and he’s not impulsive enough to alter them like that.”

  “Look, I just thought…. I thought we had a plan. While they were killing Kansten, I wasn’t there because those two”—Ranler jabbed a finger at Menikas and Laskenay—“had me going to the damn public square to prep for the Tricentennial or whatever the hell it was.”

  “Ranler,” said Laskenay, “please….”

  “Now you want to change the scheme? The hell with you! The hell with all of you!”

  Neslan looked as though Ranler had slapped him in the face. Laskenay told the thief, “This has nothing to do with Kansten. You know better than to think we’d allow her to die in vain. It’s a tactical consideration, nothing more. Should we go along with it, we’ll need your full support.”

  Ranler laughed. “You need me to follow orders, is that it? To be a faithful little sheep? When your precious Porteg goes off gallivanting whenever she likes? No. For once, Laskenay, no, not this time.”

  Kora was incensed. “Gallivanting? Gallivanting?”

  “The day Kansten died. Menikas and Laskenay go off, and ten minutes later, you’re gone. I didn’t catch you leaving, but you sure as hell went somewhere, and you made sure to get back before they did. You thought no one noticed, didn’t you?”r />
  Kora trembled. Hot guilt ran down her spine and through her limbs. Menikas demanded, “Where did you go?” but she did not respond. “Where, Porteg? It couldn’t possibly have been to my apartment?”

  The prince’s anger was nothing, not compared with the disappointment that dripped from Laskenay’s every word like the molten wax that ran down the tapers in currents.

  “Is that true, Kora? Did you follow us to listen to a private conversation?”

  “I’m so sorry, Laskenay. I’m so sorry, I can’t excuse what I did. I was just so angry with Menikas….”

  Kora thanked God she could not see her mentor’s face. Or the prince’s himself, though his shouts left her little to imagine.

  “Being what you are does not give you free rein!”

  “You’re right. You’re right, if I thought it did I’d be on the other side. I owe Laskenay more than an invasion of her privacy.”

  Menikas flicked his wrist, and a taper whizzed past Kora’s ear. Wax splattered the floor, her face. “Laskenay? What about order in the League? The trust established? And after Zalski did the same thing to you at the Landfill! Zalski, Porteg! What does that say about you?”

  “Hang Zalski! This isn’t about Zalski. You gagged me, you snake! I have bruises up my arm from you!”

  “I stopped you throwing your life away.”

  Lanokas stood up. “You threw her brother to the wolves, is what you did. Don’t you dare blame her. You left me in charge in that clearing.”

  “You told her to follow me.”

  Laskenay sighed into her hands. “There was a reason I wanted to speak privately with your brother. You knew that, Lanokas. You both knew that.”

  Kora said, “I told no one what I heard. I swear I didn’t.”

  Bidd jabbed a finger at Lanokas through the shadows. “You told him! Where do you get off not telling the rest of us?”

  Laskenay said, “Let’s not overreact.”

  Bidd cried, “I’m not overreacting, I’m angry! I put my ass on the line every day, but apparently that’s not enough for some people. If she told one person, she should have told us all. That’s a fact.”

  “I shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” said Kora.

  Menikas replied, “That makes you right about something for the first time in weeks.”

  Kora whirled on him. “I apologized!”

  “To Laskenay, yes.”

  “I’ll apologize to you when Zalski lets my brother go.”

  Menikas pointed to the door, his voice a growl. “Get out. You and Rexson both.”

  Laskenay was calm but firm. “No one’s leaving, Menikas.”

  “Either they are or I am.”

  Everyone had risen now, the entire group. Neslan put a hand on Kora’s shoulder. “If that’s the case I’m going with them.”

  “Me too,” said Hayden.

  “Don’t be an ass,” said Hal.

  “You’re the ass!” Hayden countered.

  Bidd said, “Then run out, the four of you. And good riddance. You won’t last a week.”

  Lanokas said, “Kora’s going nowhere. This is her family’s property. Anyone who resents that is free to grab their things.”

  Ranler pushed his way into Lanokas’s face. “I guess I’m clearing off, then.”

  “I don’t know how we’ll live without the criminal.”

  The thief socked Lanokas in the jaw. Lanokas responded with a blow to the nose before Neslan, Bidd, and Hal pulled them apart, the teenagers holding back Ranler. Bidd said, “Let him alone. He doesn’t matter. You’re leaving, and we’re going with you.”

  “Laskenay?” prompted Menikas.

  The sorceress stepped forward. She could no longer feign tranquility; her voice shook as much as her gait. “Let’s calm ourselves, everyone. Emotions are high, as they’re bound to be after our setbacks. That’s human nature. I know every one of you, and despite your varied backgrounds, I believe you respect one another. You always have. If you cease the squabbling, take the night to gain perspective, surely you’ll realize only one person gains from our division.”

  Menikas replied, “Zalski gains each time Rexson subverts me. I see that clearly, and so does half the League. I’ve endured it long enough. Do you stay or leave, Laskenay?”

  “If you force me to choose, I’ll be working with your brother.”

  Menikas let out a sharp laugh. “This has nothing to do with my brother. You don’t want to leave your protégée to reap the fruits of her ignorance. Magic first, that’s what this is. Sorcery strengthened in unity.”

  “Every soul here is strongest united, every one of us.”

  “The empowered must walk together.”

  “Don’t do this, Hune. Please, don’t do this.”

  “You’re no better than your snake of a twin.”

  “Adarg Reflayha!” cried Laskenay. Lanokas, who had rushed the crown prince, found his progress blocked by a large gold shield that materialized from thin air. Laskenay maintained it with a trembling arm while she used her other to magically fling Menikas’s sack to its owner. Her eyes grew narrow, her voice stronger with every word.

  “Go, then. Go now. You thankless cad, how dare you class me with…? After all I’ve done. After all we accomplished together, you and I. You alone know the half of it. You would have been dead three years ago if not for my sorcery, dead at his hand, and you say I…. Get out of my sight, or as I still breathe you’ll learn exactly what my brother and I share.”

  “Listen to yourself. You mark your difference by….”

  “BY GIVING YOU THE WARNING HE DID NOT. GET. OUT.”

  Menikas grabbed his things and left the barn, slamming the door behind him. The rush of air extinguished the candles, plunging the derelict building in total darkness as Laskenay let her shield dissolve and Ranler’s voice cut the silence.

  “And they say you’re the Marked One. Ripping the royals apart…. I guess being a sorceress isn’t enough, you need the power of being the prince’s hussy.”

  Kora spoke through gritted teeth. “I’m not sleeping with Lanokas.”

  “Like hell you aren’t.”

  “Listen, Ranler, it’s none of your damn business or anyone else’s, but I don’t sleep around. That’s exactly what I need right now, a child.”

  “I don’t care, Kora. I don’t give a shit if you want to be a whore. I’m out of here.”

  Ranler, Hal, and Bidd rummaged for their sacks. They stormed out, leaving the door open, but the gusts that penetrated the barn did not cause Kora’s chill.

  I’ve destroyed the League. Destroyed it. Laskenay won’t trust me again, why would she? I’ve doomed us all. Zacry, he’ll never get away from that man.

  Kora fought down a wave of nausea. By a glint of moonlight she saw Lanokas, so livid that he failed to notice his bleeding lip. Hayden caught Kora’s eye and mouthed, “Her twin?” for confirmation.

  It took Kora a second to realize he meant Laskenay. “Zalski,” she mouthed back. Hayden nodded; he had known they were siblings, Lanokas had told him in his story of the coup.

  A wave of anger on Laskenay’s behalf drowned Kora’s guilt; she turned her gaze to her fellow sorceress, whose arm quivered though her jaw was clenched. Zalski’s sister stared unseeingly through the doorway where the crown prince had disappeared. After some time, Neslan walked up to her.

  “Hune’s lost his mind. There’s no other explanation.”

  Laskenay’s voice was quiet, but it had a steely edge. “He believes what he said, every word. Every syllable. We’ve discussed my teaching Kora. His opinions on the topic are quite strong.”

  “I can’t believe that. He got caught in the moment, like Ranler. Laskenay, he’s known you forever, how could he possibly…?”

  “He doesn’t know me at all. Nor I him, not if he would accuse me…. He’s perfectly aware of the shame any decent person would….”

  Neslan put a hand on her shoulder. “You listen here, your brother’s actions don’t imp
licate you. They never have and never can.”

  Kora stepped forward. “It’s my fault, what happened tonight. I’m the one Menikas distrusts, not you, and it’s not because I’m a sorceress. If I hadn’t eavesdropped….”

  Neslan said, “You erred. You erred and you regret it, and if a sincere apology isn’t enough for some, the fact reflects more on them than it does you. There’s blame enough to fill all our stomachs with a slice. We might as well, we’ve no bread left.”

  “Well spoken,” grunted Lanokas. “Where they get off, the both of them…. I should have pummeled every inch of Ranler I could get my hands on. As for Hune….”

  “Don’t you mention that man in front of me. Never again, any of you, I can’t bear the thought of him. If you’ll excuse me….” Laskenay wandered past them like a lost puppy about to turn aggressive in its fear, its doubt. Only Neslan thought to follow, but Lanokas pulled him magically back by the sleeve.

  “She needs some time alone.”

  445

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Rescue Mission

  Kora sank to the floor, head in hands. Neslan paced the length of the barn while Lanokas, vocally silent, kept time by slamming his fist in his palm. “What happens now?” asked Hayden.

  “We’ll discuss that later,” said Neslan. Kora looked up.

  “What happens now? Bennie and Zac rot in the Palace, that’s what happens now. We’ll never get to them. How can we? They’ll just rot there.”

  The pain in Kora’s voice caught Neslan’s attention. He took a seat beside her and said, “We won’t get to them by a frontal assault, but maybe there’s another way. There has to be.”

  “It’s hopeless. I can’t transport near them, you know that.”

  “Where exactly are they?”

  “In tower rooms.”

  “Do you know which tower? … Lanokas, stop that!”

  Lanokas scowled, but stopped pummeling his hand. He closed the barn door with a gesture before plopping himself next to Neslan. Kora pondered the question posed to her. “Which tower? I can’t remember. North, or Northwest, something like that.”