Terah, roused from her cushion by the tension, loped over to them, breathing fetid air against Sophia’s legs.
Stephanie also moved as close to Sophia as she could get. “Don’t struggle. Just answer him honestly.”
Not to be left out, Sophia’s Gefallen, Isobel, sailed out of Fourth Dimension and hovered overhead. “Sophia, he won’t dare harm you because he needs that grandson too much. Fight him now, or he will walk all over you forever.”
Choosing to believe Stephanie, Sophia opened her eyes to the sun. “Jared is lying, my lord.” She froze, hearing the unmistakable rasp of a dagger being pulled from a leather scabbard.
Marlthas thrust the blade against her throat. “But he came to your room. You gave him your virginity.”
“No, my lord, no! Nothing like that happened. I promise you. Ask Mankana. She checked my bed sheets.”
“Then why does Jared say he had you?”
“I don’t know, my lord. I admit he came to my room, but he only stayed for a short time. And I didn’t sleep with him.” She forced herself to focus on Marlthas’s face, but saw no mercy there. “I know why I’m here in Shenaya, my lord. The importance of your grandson has been ingrained into me since I was a child. I promise you, I’ll let nothing and no one stand in the way of that boy.”
Marlthas pushed the knife harder into her throat, just breaking the skin. “Your behaviour disappoints. You think I play when I say I will kill your father and destroy your Family. But then, perhaps, you feel nothing for them. Well, my Norin whore, put a value on your own life. Bed my son, or I make you an oath: the next time I put a blade against your throat, I will slice it.” He paused to let his words, reinforced by drops of blood oozing from her neck, sink in. Then he eased the pressure on the knife. “And, when I have my grandson, Jared can have you. His reward for loyalty to the Overlord.”
Sophia’s face flushed red as she tried to grasp what he was saying.
“Now get out. Go play the part of the seductress.” Marlthas lowered the knife, and shoved her halfway across the room. Then he yelled to the Pledged outside the door, “Send for the Shadow Lord.”
Sophia steadied herself. “Forgive me, my lord, but I have a question. What will happen to Jared now?”
Marlthas kneaded his lips together at her brazenness. For a moment it looked as if he intended to strike her, but instead he answered, “Jared will get his rewards.”
Sophia left the room fighting tears. Stephanie followed at her side, whispering comforting words in her ear. Erin longed to follow, but the Stone kept her captive in Marlthas’s office. She glanced over at Seth. He was gnawing his fingernails, as he always did when he was stressed and thought that no one was watching. “I don’t get it,” she said. “Why didn’t Stephanie protect her? What’s the point of a Guardian if they let bullies like Marlthas threaten you?”
“Maybe because she didn’t ask for help. Isn’t that what they keep telling us,” Seth offered cautiously.
“And why would Marlthas lie like that? What’s his gain?”
“How else can he know if Rustus lied to him about Jared, other than by trapping Sophia into telling the truth?”
Erin bit her lip. She wished she could discover so easily if Seth had lied to her about the Stone.
Chapter 17
DEAL OR NO DEAL?
Marlthas’s office door flew open with a crash, making Marlthas, Seth, and Erin jump. Caleb stood framed in the doorway. Face darkened by the possessing presence of his new Gefallen, his amber eyes roved across the room. With a kick, he closed the door, and flung himself down on the sofa. For all his arrogance, Seth sensed dread lodged deep into Caleb’s psyche – the dread he always felt when he came to his father’s office.
“You wanted to see me.”
“Yes, I did. Astonishing, isn’t it? My pathetic son and I are to have a conversation.”
“If it’s insults you want to trade, I’ve got more entertaining things to do. Like picking the lice out of my dog’s ears.” Caleb stood and headed for the door.
“Then you don’t want to know that Jared was in Sophia’s bedchamber last night – with Sophia?”
Caleb stopped. “Only you could be stupid enough to dream up something as unbelievable as that.”
“Insult all you want, Caleb. But Sophia was here just moments ago, and she’s admitted everything.”
Caleb’s eyes widened with doubt. “Prove it. The sheets . . . show me it happened.”
“The sheets,” Marlthas yelled, shooting spit across the room. “The only sheets we should be examining this morning are yours. And, as we both know, you remain a defiant bachelor today. You did nothing to secure your succession. Useless miscreant that you are.”
Caleb hesitated. He understood his father well enough to know that Sophia would now be dead – or at least on her way to her execution – if she had slept with Jared. It shocked him how his spirit soared at the thought of her demise. Then Seth felt him cringe; Caleb was no killer like his father and uncles. Still, Caleb forced a detachment he didn’t feel into his voice and asked, “So I take it Sophia is now dead. Who’s next in the line-up for me to marry?” When Marlthas looked away, Caleb guessed that Sophia had somehow survived. Although he sighed with relief, confusingly, another part of him – a new side to his nature that he didn’t know he possessed – was furious. It was the influence of his Gefallen.
“With the war in Ammarod, I can’t risk killing Sophia. Jethro would be sure to retaliate.”
Caleb snorted derisively. “And you expect me to believe that Jethro of Norin would stand in the way of your bloodlust if Jared had slept with Sophia? Who’s the idiot here?”
Marlthas scowled, hating having to backtrack, but Caleb was right. And they both knew it. “I didn’t say Jared bedded her. Just that he tried. Hard. And was almost successful. But I’d already made it very clear to her that she’s your wife. Now, do what any other normal man would do when offered Sophia. Secure your succession.”
Caleb stood still, trying to understand what his father was really saying in all this talk. Finally he muttered, more to himself than to Marlthas, “Jared boasts, but he wouldn’t actually sleep with Sophia. He just wouldn’t risk it.”
“Risk what, Caleb? Not becoming your Lord of the Armoury when I finally fulfil all your wishes and die? Jared knows as well as everyone else here that you are weak and spineless and that you’ll never amount to a real Overlord. We all know about your so-called grand vision for Shenaya. No Pledged. No Outcasts. No Shenaya. And who’s going to implement this madness for you? Jared! Don’t make me laugh.”
Caleb was about to wrench the door open to leave, when Marlthas bolted across the room and shouted in his face, “Wastrel! That’s what you are, Caleb. A waste of a skin who doesn’t deserve to live. And to think I traded my wife . . . my Cassandra . . . for you and that snivelling brother of yours.”
Caleb’s hand paused over the door handle. Part of his brain pleaded with him to leave, but that small voice of reason was drowned out by another louder, more insistent one that demanded that he retaliate. So he did. “You’re nothing but a hypocrite! You deny everyone else the right to love, but when it comes to you and my mother then a different set of rules applies.”
“Don’t you dare even mention your mother! It’s thanks to you and Daniel that she’s dead. She was worth a thousand of you. You robbed me, both of you! But at least I have Jared. At least my nephew can be relied upon . . .”
An explosion of rage burst in Caleb’s head, fuelled by his Gefallen. It was blinding. He buried his head in his hands to stop the mind-numbing pain. In the background, he could hear his father, but Marlthas’s words were lost under his Gefallen’s shrieks: “Kill him! Kill your father!” His mind taken captive, Caleb’s arms jerked up, and his fingers clawed for Marlthas’s neck. With a full-blooded screech, Terah leapt between them. Ignoring the cheetah, hearing only his Gefallen –“Kill him! Kill your father! Finish it off!” – Caleb’s fingers locked around Marlthas’s t
hroat. His fingers squeezed tight, choking the life out of his father.
Gagging, eyes bulging, Marlthas managed to click his fingers. Trained to obey, Terah leapt at Caleb. Too stupefied by his Gefallen, Caleb didn’t even see her coming.
But Phineas did. With a wave of his arm, he projected a brilliant shaft of light between Caleb’s neck and the cheetah’s jaws. Terah crashed to the floor, cowering at Phineas’s feet. When Phineas spoke, his words were aimed at both the living and the dead. “Cassandra, no! This is not the way to get your husband to join you.”
Cassandra ignored Phineas, and continued to weave her dark form through and around Caleb’s hands and body. But it was in vain. Seeing Phineas, hearing his call, Caleb began to regain control. His hands dropped to his sides as if he were emerging from a nightmare.
Marlthas slumped back against the wall, staring at Phineas standing bright and gleaming in his office – the man he had watched Caleb execute so many years before.
“Cassandra, I command you to go!” Phineas’s voice again echoed from wall to wall.
Unseen by Caleb and Marlthas, Cassandra danced around the room before shooting off to the painting of herself on her husband’s desk. She curled around it once and then darted through her left eye into the Fourth Dimension.
Unable to grasp that Cassandra had been here too, Marlthas collapsed onto the floor. At last his heart slowed. He saw Caleb, wide-eyed and pale, propped up against the door. Summoning all his strength, he yelled, “You . . . you tried to murder me, you dog!”
“You had it coming. I – I should have done it years ago.” Caleb lurched out the door. Erin and Seth followed after him, listening to his anguished thoughts: Phineas, my mother? A Gefallen? She was here?
“I’m sorry, Caleb. But, yes, your mother was here. She possessed you when you left me last night.”
But she tried to make me kill my father. Caleb was holding the wall to keep upright.
“Your mother was an unusual Norin,” Phineas explained. “Almost all Norin girls have a natural aversion for their Shadow Lords. That’s why you boys are all blessed with such appealing good looks – to lure your temptress in. But Cassandra was different. She fell in love with your father. Just as he did with her. I have been told by the other Guardians that Reuel was furious. He ranted and raved, saying they had no right to love – until Cassandra swore allegiance to Marlthas. And thus to him. That sealed her fate.”
But why would she make me kill him? It makes no sense, Caleb demanded.
“Death is just a transition, and she’s tired of waiting for him to die. She wants him with her, so she struck a deal with Reuel.”
Caleb gnawed his thumbnail, tearing away at the cuticle. Tell me, Phineas – and I’m trusting you – was Jared really in Sophia’s room?
“Yes, he was.”
Did he sleep with her?
“No, Caleb. But I did warn you last night–”
“Enough, Phineas,” Caleb interrupted, speaking out loud as fury replaced the numb confusion in his brain. “I’ll make up my own mind about my so-called best friend if and when I ever figure out what’s really going on here.” He stumbled off down the passage and disappeared down a flight of stairs, with Phineas trailing behind.
Erin turned to Seth. He was slouched against the wall with his hands in his pockets. Seeing his shell-shocked expression, she understood for the first time what being in Shenaya was costing him on an emotional level. Unlike her, he wasn’t a fighter. Seth hated conflict. She guessed that watching his friends’ anger destroy their souls was probably intensely painful for him. But there was nothing he could do about it, because none of his survival tactics worked here.
From what she could see, Seth had two very distinct ways of dealing with problems. His gut reaction was to run. Escape. If that failed, he would negotiate his way out of trouble. Trapped as he was in Shenaya by the crows, he couldn’t run. Maybe Gideon allowed that to happen to close Seth’s options. It seemed cruel, but then Gideon wasn’t known for being a softy. Dying on the pans had left Seth with no choice but to fall back on his real talents: negotiation. But he couldn’t speak to anyone here. So that made being in Shenaya pointless.
Every cell in his body is probably screaming at him find a way out of this mess. No wonder he can’t really focus on anything else. For the first time Erin understood why he wanted to go back to Kyle. The insight not only cooled her anger, it also explained her love for him. He’s gentle. And caring. And smart enough to know that conflict rarely solves things. In fact, he’s the perfect match to my personality. No wonder my spirit loved him so much and for so long. Needing to have physical contact with the mortal Seth, she placed her hand on his arm. “You want to talk about Caleb?”
“What’s there to say?”
“I wish I could read the Guardians’ minds. I’m sure it would answer so many questions.”
“Yeah. But we can’t. That would have been way too helpful. And Gideon and the boys wouldn’t want to make this too easy for us now, would they?” With a deep sigh of frustration, Seth pulled away from the wall. “Just touch the friggin’ Stone and let’s get out of here.”
* * *
The shrill call of trumpets greeted them as they arrived in the Fortress quadrangle. Groups of teenagers, some of whom Seth recognised from the marriage sacrifice, stood around, waiting. Today a very different atmosphere prevailed. The boys had gravitated together, trading laughter-filled banter as they compared their new weapons. Clearly the Armoury had re-opened this morning. Bored with the boy-talk, the girls had sought each other out and were discussing their wedding nights with veiled innuendoes and giggles. A smattering of couples, who had obviously connected overnight, stood apart from the crowd, focused on each other to the exclusion of all else. Reuel wouldn’t like that at all. The thought brought a smile to Seth’s face. Still, none of his observations told him what was happening, so he frisked their minds. Then he sighed in even deeper frustration. The transmission had broken down. Again.
“It’s a hunt,” Erin volunteered. “They’re supposed to bring back game for the marriage feast happening tonight. It’s the real wedding celebration.”
“Thanks. I wish I knew why my head doesn’t work properly with mind-reading.”
“I think I’ve figured it out.”
“And I’ve just won a free ticket out of here.”
Erin could resist smiling at his confirmation of her character assessment of him. “That begs an explanation.”
“I bet myself that you’d come up with a mind-reading theory after what happened in Marlthas’s office. Pity I can’t collect on it.”
“Oh.” Erin bit her lip, and then asked in a small voice, “Did you see Stephanie smack me on the side of the head?”
Seth burst into laughter. “No. More’s the pity.”
Erin giggled, looking down in embarrassment. “Well, she did.”
“One bit of violence around here that I do condone. Maybe that makes me as bad a hypocrite as Marlthas, but you had it coming. So what’s your theory?”
In the interests of peace, Erin chose to ignore that comment. “Gideon said that without the one, the other fails.”
“Yes. Only bit of useful advice he’s actually given us. As far as I can see.”
“Seth, your views on the Guardians are coming through loud and clear. You don’t like them–”
“No. I do like some of them. Kate was great. Stephanie is . . . well, she’s just gone up in my estimation.” He grinned at Erin so she would know he wasn’t picking a fight. “The trouble is, I just don’t trust them.”
“I get that. But I think you struggle with all authority figures.” When he didn’t deny it, she added, “So how else does Gideon make sure we stick together other than by splitting the mind-reading talent?”
“Just my point. All these dead guys do is manipulate. Caleb’s right to despise the lot of them.”
It was clear to Erin that she was not going to win this argument. It was time to move on. She turne
d her deep green eyes on him. “Seth, I’ve been a bear with all my mood swings. And I’m really sorry. I promise, I’m not usually like this.”
“A real grizzly.” Unable to stay cross with her, he mussed her hair, loving the feel of its silky softness against his hand. “And I promise I didn’t take us to Rustus. That was the Stone.” He studied her face to see if she believed him. Traces of doubt lingered there.
“It’s because of your stupid promise to Kyle,” his spirit told him with some irritation. “Of course she’s gonna think we’re lying.”
Seth ignored him. With a wave at the Shenayans, he asked, “So, Sparkles. What’s the buzz here?”
“Caleb hasn’t pitched. Sophia hasn’t seen him, or Jared, this morning. And that’s a bit of a problem, because the hunt can’t start without him. Everyone’s getting ticked off with waiting. Not out loud, of course. No one would dare criticize one of Reuel’s Sons in public. Not if they hope to be around come suppertime. But it’s Sophia I feel most sorry for. She’s been made to look like such a fool.”
Seth agreed. Sophia was standing at the edge of the crowd, looking utterly miserable.
“How much time has passed since her meeting with Marlthas?”
Erin did a quick dig in Sophia’s head. “About an hour or so. The pain and terror of that meeting is still very, very fresh. She just can’t believe that Jared would have betrayed her like that.”
Seth noticed that Sophia was wearing a scarf around her neck to hide the evidence of Marlthas’s dagger. Just then Kezeah sailed over to join her. Sophia’s face fell even more. Kezeah let out a long, dramatic sigh. “Sophia, only you could be stupid enough to reject the most gorgeous bachelor in the universe.”
“Keep your voice down, Kezeah,” Sophia whispered. “And I’m not the one who’s missing today.”
“Funny, I don’t see Jared here either,” Kezeah said, refusing to lower her voice. “Maybe a pretty face and long legs aren’t everything.” She fiddled with her elaborate hairstyle, making the diamond comb Daniel had given her at the altar sparkle. “You know, maybe I should flash my eyes at Caleb. Perhaps he’ll like me better and I’ll be the one who gets to bear his children. Wouldn’t that be fun!” She gave Sophia a condescending look that said I’ve done something you haven’t, and added, “And no doubt he’ll be a better lover than his brother.”
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