"And we called Yaredolak, Reedy, for the same reason," Norian's mother agreed. "Is this my son? Is it? Will someone explain where he's been all this time?" She was about to have a meltdown, too, and Reedy just looked bewildered, now.
* * *
"The Alliance boarded the ship—it was a freighter smuggling other things besides me," Norian sat at a table inside a large kitchen at the family manor. Norian's mother, father and his doubting brother sat with us while Norian told his story. "I couldn't tell them my real name, I could only say Keef, umma and pap," he went on. "They almost killed me when the full moon came along. Ildevar Wyyld showed up, made arrangements for me to be brought up and schooled and then convinced me to work for the ASD."
"And now you're the Director." Norian's father was still in shock.
"Yes. And only recently made Ildevar Wyyld's heir. After I married Lissa Beth." Norian put his hand over mine. The claw crown ring was prominent on his finger.
"But you've been gone so long, I'm not sure how to fit you into the family," his mother sighed.
"You don't have to fit me into the family. I just wanted to find you. Make sure I hadn't dreamed you, or something. With the way Reedy greeted me, it's probably just as well." Poor Norian. If he'd expected a tearful reunion, he wasn't getting it.
"It's the full moon, and we'll be going out in a while," Reedy was still acting grumpy.
"What is wrong with you?" I asked. "Norian isn't taking anything away from you. And now, your parents can rest easier, I hope, knowing that their child wasn't tortured, killed or held in somebody's zoo. Norian has a job to do, so he isn't going to be hanging around, depending on you to support him. And I'm still a little pissed over the fact that you tried to kill us without knowing whether we were good or bad. I get a slight itch, looking at you. Why is that, Reedy? I know you're fifteen years older than Norian. That would have made you nineteen or twenty, when Norian was abducted. Who did you make a deal with, Reedy?" I'd done a little Looking. Reedy had given away sensitive information.
Norian's father was now staring at his oldest son. "Nori, I think it's time we left," I said, rising. "You can turn here, or I can take you back to Wyyld or Le-Ath Veronis. Whatever you want, honey." I looked At Norian's mother. "I am Queen of Le-Ath Veronis," I said. "If you'd like to visit with your son again, get a message to me. My assistants will know to pass it along immediately." I folded Norian back to Wyyld.
* * *
"My own brother gave us away?" Norian couldn't believe it.
"Honey, you were taken on a full moon. Reedy told the kidnappers where the three smallest ones were going to be. Who knows what he gained from all that?"
"Maybe I'll have him investigated." Norian was angry, now.
"Up to you," I muttered. "Do you think Ildevar will mind if I dig through his kitchen for something to eat?" Norian's family hadn't offered us a thing.
Norian helped me look for food; we ended up with a rice dish with meat and vegetables. It was good. We ate at the island and Norian settled me on top of it before working his way between my legs. "Norian, we are not going to fool around in the kitchen," I grumbled.
"But I want to," he was kissing my neck and trying to unbutton my blouse. I fooled him—I folded us to my suite. He didn't seem to mind.
* * *
"Lissa, we have to go. Quickly." Those were Norian's words to me when I woke.
"Honey, that's the worst pickup line I ever heard." I cracked an eye open and stared at him. He was already dressed in his ASD uniform—black and gray and all business.
"Lissa, we'll have to work on separating business and pleasure later. Deonus Wyyld tells me we have to go to Tykl."
"The trash planet?" I was fully awake now. "Whatever for?"
"Somebody wanted to get to those bodies we dumped there before our agents could collect them all. We are attempting to find out why that is. Come, get dressed."
"Fine," I grumped and slid off the bed. Norian watched me the whole time I undressed to shower and then watched me dress again, before doing my hair. "I didn't get to watch you," I pointed out. He gave me half a grin and tried to hurry me along. I guess lion snakes have some kind of herding ability—he was doing a good job.
Lendill was waiting on us, and they wanted me to get them to an Alliance ship orbiting Tykl. The bodies they'd found were on board. I had to concentrate to hit a moving target, but we did it. The Captain of the ship hardly lifted an eyebrow when the three of us appeared out of nowhere inside his office.
"We destroyed the small ship sent to pick up the bodies, but we don't know why they wanted them. We can't find anything on the bodies, either—no chips or anything else that might be used as a homing beacon, and there's no other reason anyone might know they were here. That information has been kept tightly guarded." Captain Galeda informed us as we walked swiftly toward the ship's infirmary. The three bodies they had were in cold storage there—they'd already been examined.
These bodies were three of the attackers I'd decapitated during the shoot-out with Lendill. "None of these were ours," Lendill said as we examined them. The heads were set near the necks from which they'd been severed.
"Were the decapitations done with a laser sword?" Captain Galeda asked.
"No." Norian wanted to smile; I just knew it.
"We've gone over prints, eye scans, body scans—the works. There's nothing, except these tattoos." He pulled down lower lips to show three identical sun wheel tattoos. "No chips or implants, though. No strange DNA patterns, even. We've had the complete workup as far as blood and tissue go," the Captain added. "They all suffered from the same, rare disease."
The bodies still held whatever it was that blocked their scents, so I Looked for information instead. Captain Galeda's words had raised my suspicions, and now I knew why the scents had been blocked—likely by a warlock. I had my arms crossed over my chest, trying not to hyperventilate afterward. Black Mist has allied with Solar Red, and they're both behind this, I sent to Norian and Lendill. Solar Red had a habit of placing sun wheel tattoos somewhere on their priest's bodies. And these three, well, they'd been enhanced—with vampire blood. That spelled Black Mist to me. They didn't care that these priests would die eventually from the infusion of vampire blood—they wanted them strong to take Lendill down. It didn't matter what happened afterward. There was something else, too, that made my skin itch about these three.
Breah-mul are you sure? Norian sent back. He was still getting used to mindspeech—he always hesitated a little before doing it. And what does that have to do with these three and the fact that someone came to find them?
Black Mist has either wizards or warlocks, I'm sure of it now, I returned. I think these bodies are sending out signals, only it isn't any kind of beacon you can use science to find. You'd need another warlock, I think. I suspected that Black Mist wanted them so we wouldn't figure out they'd been enhanced with vampire blood. I didn't want to tell Norian that if I didn't have to, though. If word of that got out, we could have panic across the Alliance.
We don't have any wizards or warlocks in the ASD—not on the payroll, anyway, Norian sounded grumpy, now.
Let me see if I can get Erland to come, I replied, and then sent out mindspeech to my Karathian mate.
Erland was there faster than I thought possible. "My love, what do you need?" he asked breathlessly. I had no idea if I'd interrupted anything important. He was dressed as he usually was—neatly and in the latest fashion.
"Honey, I think we have something here that a wizard might have had a hand in." Briefly, I explained what was going on with help from Norian, Lendill and Captain Galeda.
"You'll have to stand back from the bodies, this can be a little bright," Erland warned. Honestly, I'd never really seen him work before. We got a good demonstration now. He held out his hands, whispered a few words that I didn't catch and the heads began to glow. Not the bodies, just the heads. Their eyes popped open and purple light shone from their lifeless depths.
"This is a
n extremely difficult and expensive spell," Erland dropped his hands after a while, allowing the light to disappear abruptly. "It is keyed to the warlock who created it. A finding spell. Unless I know which warlock created the spell, I can't determine the point of origin. Even Wylend can't do anything about this. We need the warlock's name."
"But this is how they found the others?" Norian stared at Erland.
"Yes, and they know exactly where these are, too. This ship is in danger—when I checked these three for the type of spell cast, it triggered another spell. The caster knows that a wizard or warlock has checked the bodies. They didn't want that to happen."
I barely had time to throw a shield around the ship before we were hit. The ship still got knocked around. I'm sure the object had been to throw the ship into Tykl's orbit, which would cause it to crash.
"He won't be able to throw another hit like that—that was enough to empty any warlock's reserves," Erland straightened his clothing. The blast had nearly knocked all of us over and caused a few alarms to go off aboard the ship.
"Is there any way to nullify the spell on these three, here?" Norian asked after we were back to normal.
"Sure. This one is free. The next one will cost you." Erland flashed his famous, heart-melting smile and went to work.
"Honey, I ought to ask to watch you work more often." I sat next to Erland as he had a cup of tea in the ship's galley afterward.
"Lissa, that sounds boring." He bumped his forehead against mine before giving me a warm kiss. "Now, I need to have a conference with your grandfather." Erland set down his cup, rose and was gone in a blink.
* * *
"Zellar doesn't have that kind of power and his is the only name we know," Wylend huffed at Erland's information.
"If I ever catch up with any of them," Erland didn't finish. Just the thought of warlocks allied with Black Mist made him want to cast a breaking spell against them. He'd have to be close to do it but heads would explode, in a manner similar to what Lissa could do.
"You have my permission to use any force against them." Wylend knew what Erland was thinking.
* * *
Zellar didn't have to tell Viregruz that his effort had failed—he'd informed Viregruz before the spell was cast that it was too far and distance would weaken the casting. Viregruz had guessed at the failure by Zellar's expression and the exhaustion that came with it. Zeller hadn't had this level of power before, but he'd tapped into the core of the planet. Removing that energy required the darkest of spells and once tapped, the energy would continue to drain away at an accelerated rate until the planet died.
Zellar no longer cared how the power was gained—it had become an addiction to wield so much of it. Besides, Viregruz was looking to relocate anyway. What care did they have that Mazareal would die within a decade? Zellar was paid very well for his services, and at the moment, Viregruz was still treating him as a favored employee. Zellar knew it was due to his newly acquired talent and power—he just wasn't telling anyone where it came from. He was thankful, too, that Viregruz hadn't blamed him for Giryoth's failure to kill the Queen of Le-Ath Veronis and the ASD's Director. Zellar worried, though, that if he were involved in many more failures, Viregruz's attitude might change.
It helped, too, that none seemed to know that Zellar worked for Black Mist. Zellar's spies monitored the ones hunted by the ASD and so far, his name hadn't appeared on any bulletins. The King of Karathia had his name on a list for lesser crimes, but even he had no suspicions of Zellar's new talents.
"They will not find anything, Lord Viregruz," Zellar assured the vampire who'd created Black Mist. "Their science will not tell them anything. They cannot use tests to track a spell and they have no warlocks in their employ. My spies in the Alliance keep me informed."
"Yes, I know this," Viregruz agreed. "I'd prefer that it stay that way—the ASD shouldn't hire power wielders. That leaves us with an edge, my warlock friend."
"We should look again for another world—we must relocate soon," Zellar went on. He didn't tell Viregruz that in two months or less he would completely drain the world they stood upon. Its death would come slowly after that, but it would come.
"My friend, I am turning my thoughts to that. Had I known about the world that is called Le-Ath Veronis, I would have taken it before the bitch queen came along. That would have been perfect for us."
Zellar didn't comment. He had some information on that world and he knew Viregruz might not have been able to take it. Le-Ath Veronis had been uninhabited before the queen arrived. Now it grew and thrived. Even Viregruz would have admitted that with no life, he and his other vampires could not survive. They would be forced to search for a world that had plenty of warm-blooded humanoids upon it.
"Shall I call one of the others to bring a meal for you?" Zellar asked politely.
"Of course. I am hungry. We will discuss relocation later."
Zellar dipped his head respectfully and went to find a servant.
* * *
"Lissa, Erland told us where you were," the communication looked fuzzy on board the ship, but the audio was good. Grant and Heathe were both there in the not-so-clear image, with information to share with me.
"What do you have, honey?" I asked.
"Someone who identified herself as Narimalan Cordrifith has asked to visit Le-Ath Veronis," Grant reported. "She said you told her she could come if she wanted to visit with her son."
"That's Norian's mother," I drew a tired breath. Norian, Lendill and I hadn't had any rest since we'd boarded the ship, and it didn't look as if we were going to get any soon. "Arrange for her to come, and for her husband to come with her. I will not allow her first son—his name is Yaredolak by the way—to set foot on Le-Ath Veronis. Arrange for discreet guards, too—Norian doesn't know his family very well and I sure don't want them to hurt him or anyone else on my planet." I'd taken the call inside a private cubicle—Norian and Lendill were doing business on other matters elsewhere.
Heathe went to his communicator while I waited and scheduled a visit with Norian's parents in two days. He asked my palace staff to prepare a guest suite for them as well. They would be given the best treatment while they were visiting.
"Why doesn't Norian know his parents?" Grant asked as he tapped away on his comp-vid.
"Honey, it's a long story," I said. "I'll tell you the whole thing someday. It isn't their fault. Or his fault. We may have to get to the bottom of this sometime soon." I terminated the communication and went looking for Norian to give him the news.
"Honey, your parents are coming to Le-Ath Veronis in two days. I hope you can spare some time," I told him, sitting on the chair next to his as he scrolled through information on his handheld.
Norian gave me a shocked look—his fingers stilling on the microcomputer in his hand. "Did they say why they were coming?" I think he had difficulty swallowing for a moment.
"Honey, I didn't ask my assistants to grill them—I assume they want to see you. We didn't talk much when we were with them the other day."
"I'm not up to more of the same. And I can tell you now; I don't have any desire to see my homicidal, child-selling brother again."
"I told Grant that he wasn't welcome on Le-Ath Veronis," I rubbed Norian's back. Deep down, this hurt him. More than he would ever show anyone, except for me, perhaps. He and I—we both had terrible things in our childhood. "Honey, I have a question," I said as we sat there, shoulder to shoulder while I rubbed his back. Norian seemed lost in thought.
"What is it, breah-mul?" Norian leaned over and breathed on my neck before placing a kiss.
"In your duties as Director of the ASD, have you run across any poisonings of important people? Or people who were bitten by, say, a lion snake?"
If Norian had been thinking amorous thoughts, that stopped him in his tracks and he stilled completely.
"Cheah-mul, lion snakes are common to nearly half the Alliance worlds. They have been used many times over the centuries to bring about changes i
n leadership or to create chaos. The venom acts too quickly—there is no time to administer an antidote before the victim dies."
"But in the last one hundred years or so?" I was pressing for information. He still didn't see where this was going.
"Let me pull up the records." He was humoring me at the moment. He had several assassinations pulled up for me quickly—all occurring within the past ninety years. One was on Tulgalan. Another on Otheliah. Those were the most important—charismatic leaders on both worlds had been poised to bring about sweeping changes. Both killed before their plans could be brought to fruition. Others had died in the same way, all important but not as far-reaching.
"This doesn't include all the minor deaths—people in industrial circles or things of that nature, who all died from lion snake poison. It seems to be a favorite among killers." Norian took his minicomputer back.
"Honey, how many perpetrators did you catch on those deaths?" He'd only been director for seventy-six years, so he might not be able to say for sure on any assassinations before that.
"None. All anyone had to do was release a lion snake inside a bedroom or an office. Those snakes are aggressive, especially if they are in a strange place. They'll attack anything that shows up."
"Think about this for a moment," I said. "You assume that someone wanted to add a lion snake shapeshifter to their menagerie. You thought you'd be put in a cage for the rest of your life. What if that isn't true? What if someone came looking for you and the others to get a killing machine? Did you ever find the snakes in these cases, Norian? Did you look?"
Norian's face turned gray as he stared at me. This had never occurred to him. He assumed the other two children had been shut away inside a cage. Perhaps they had, but then someone might have raised them—given them bits of warmth or affection here or there, just to get them to kill. They would be indoctrinated, now, and I had a good guess who'd done this, if things had happened that way.
Blood Redemption (Blood Destiny #9) Page 20