* * *
Kerok
"We have reports that two sheep and several baskets of fresh vegetables disappeared last night, roughly the same time that three former Council members disappeared," Weren sat heavily on an empty chair at the small table in my suite.
"From the southern-most domes?" I asked. It was something I'd do if I were Merrin-send a few to take food from the best-known quality source, after the failure at a recent remote cabin. That, combined with what they'd taken from the Council members' homes, would last for a few days, at least.
"Yes. I heard it on my way in," Weren explained. "I believe Hunter is speaking with the messenger now."
"Then I'll have a written report soon enough." I wanted to curse, but what good would that do?
"I've decided to take the position, if you still want to give it to me," Weren said. "I only ask that you allow my wife to stay with me whenever I'm at Secondary Camp, or any other place with four walls and a real bed."
"I'll grant that, General. You'll do my army proud."
"I'd like to begin working on the problem of stolen food and disappearing former Council members who will probably convert to Merrin's cause," Weren said. "With your permission, of course. And more than anything, I'd like to learn how to shield myself, since I won't have an escort assigned."
"I'll see to it. At the moment, Armon, Levi and their escorts are training Garkus and Kage to do that very thing. You can go today or tomorrow, learn what they can teach you and have a meeting with both to determine how to proceed in combatting the Merrin conundrum."
"I'll leave tomorrow morning, after I learn what the official report is from Hunter, if you don't mind."
"Of course. I'll have Hunter include you in all written records pertinent to your position. Have your staff here transport anything you need to Secondary Camp-either stepping it or by vehicle."
"I'll get it done," Weren nodded.
Two servants arrived with food, so we began to eat while we discussed current events and what the enemy could be planning before making their return.
* * *
Sherra
"I have a question," I said while having tea and honey cakes with Kyri and Pottles.
"What's that?" Kyri lifted a dark eyebrow as she studied me across the table.
"Which one of you is the phantom?"
Kyri and Pottles turned to blink at one another. That's when I knew it was neither of them.
I can't explain why, but the fine hair on my arms rose, and a tingling of fear chased down my spine.
"I've only seen him a few times," Pottles lowered her eyes. "The last time, he brought Veri to me. I was so angry at what I saw in her, I slapped her. He ah, seemed satisfied with that and took her away."
"She was found dead," I breathed.
"As they all are," Kyri admitted. "It is not our doing, Doret's or mine," she added. "Adahi goes his own way and follows his own counsel. He is always right, though, when he brings death to someone."
He scares the hell out of me, Pottles informed me in mindspeak. Always covered in a dark cloak, with only his mouth visible when I see him, most of the time.
"I've never heard that name before," I said aloud. "Adahi?"
"It's a variation on an ancient word from a race nearly extinct. The word, in its original form, means poison," Kyri said. "Adahi seldom speaks at length when he comes; at times, he brings me the ones he's marked for death, as if asking for my approval. They are the worst he carries to me, for various reasons, and I always agree with his sentences. I record the names and deeds of each in a book of records for my library."
"So Veri's name-and the Bulldog's-are in your records?"
"They are."
I shivered at her words. I'd imagined all along, since I'd wakened in Kyri's City, that she or Pottles had to be that silent enforcer. To learn it was someone nobody really knew-that was frightening.
"We believe he is held back from tracking Merrin by the very things that prevent us from finding the bastard," Pottles grumbled. "I think we'd have seen Merrin dead by now, if that weren't the case."
"At least Drenn is dead." I still felt anger that he'd participated in Ura's downfall, and may have done the same thing on other occasions.
"I believe Drenn was marked by Adahi, but, like me, believed the Crown Prince needed to stay in that position and leave Thorn with the army. You see how Drenn's meddling destroyed that plan," Kyri didn't sound pleased. "When Adahi took down the assassins who acted as Drenn's conspirators, that act was designed to keep Drenn on the right side of the laws-at least for a while."
"And it would have worked, except for Merrin's meddling-again," Pottles huffed. "Drenn was scared of his own shadow by that time-as he should be, lying, scheming prick that he was."
I didn't argue with her assessment-I felt the same, although I wouldn't use those exact words, perhaps.
"Have you had time to think about how to get around Merrin's perimeter divinations?" Kyri asked, changing the subject.
"I've been thinking about it, but so far, a workable solution hasn't come to me."
"Keep working on it, then. Whatever you devise, we'll put to a test."
"You won't mind if I erect my own perimeter divination?" I asked. "Just to study it?"
"No. I wouldn't have shown it to you, otherwise."
"Good. I'll set one up outside the garden walls, then. One more thing-how difficult would it be to find something Merrin has touched or-blocked from divination?"
"Not impossible," Pottles considered my request. "Difficult, perhaps."
"Do you have something in mind?" Kyri expressed interest.
"Just that when I figured out how to allow someone or something through my shield, I had to convince my shield that those things were a part of it. If I study Merrin's power in an object, since I can't touch him and have no desire to ever do so, maybe I can duplicate his power well enough that his perimeter divination will let me through."
"Now there's the brilliance I was hoping for," Kyri laughed. "We'll find something for you-but it may take time and deviousness to do it."
"I'll go try my hand at a perimeter divination, then," I dusted honey cake crumbs from my fingers and stood.
"I'll take care of the dishes," Pottles waved me away as I reached for my plate and cup. "Go do whatever it is you need to. That's more important, I think."
"Then give me something of yours-something you don't care about, that holds enough of your power signature in it," I said. "For experimentation, you understand."
"Go put up your thing, girl. I'll be out in a while after I've had time to look." Pottles shooed me toward the back door.
* * *
Merrin
"You have your own army, you just don't realize it, yet," Gram Plicton informed me. He'd been one of Drenn's closest advisors-in secret, of course. His decision to keep that secret was the only reason he wasn't sitting in the lockup with several others.
"What army is that?" I asked. I had a few sympathizers left in the army, but not many; Thorn had burned power out of most of them already.
"I'm not talking about the King's army," Plicton scoffed at my question. "I'm talking about every man, woman and child who lives outside the King's City. Or have you not bothered to realize the vast difference between those who live inside and outside the domes? It may as well be another country, out there. A really poor one, too. Promise them wealth or a better life, and they'll flock to you. Those bleeding hearts in the palace won't kill them if they attack-because they're too soft and won't recognize the immediate threat."
"That's fine, but it sounds like an extended war if we go that route. Thorn will figure it out eventually-he has messengers and informants in many villages, who'll send word if we attempt what you suggest."
"Oh, I have a plan for that," Plicton said. "Is there any more tea?" He looked around at the others.
We'd taken an abandoned shack roughly thirty miles from Secondary Camp-weather farther south was becoming unbearably hot, and
here it was cooler, at least.
"Bring tea," I barked at one of the six escorts. She turned to do my bidding-as she should. One of the others was busy holding a shield over our heads; clouds were coming in and rain could fall through multiple holes in the roof.
Outside, I'd placed another perimeter divination-that trick had saved lives last time, and kept us away from those who'd sought us in the past. "What's your plan?" I asked as Plicton's cup was refilled.
"There are two medical outposts between the battlefield and the King's City. I say we take both-you have enough warriors with you to take down anybody there with power. The others will be washouts and drudges, who'll do what we say or die for their resistance. We then fill both camps with hostages from one village or two, and challenge the King to take them back. While he and Thorn are working on that problem, we sneak around, village to village, tell them Thorn is holding the people against their will in these army outposts, and start a revolt."
"How will we convince them of that?" I snorted in disbelief.
"Leave that to me. Who do you think they'll believe-a Council member who has first-hand knowledge of Crown Prince Drenn's murder at the hands of his brother, or the new Crown Prince, who is only waiting for his father to die so he can rule? If we add that Thorn intends to demand more taxes from Az-ca's citizens, you'll have them begging to follow you. If Thorn turns the army loose on rioting citizens, it'll only prove our point in their eyes."
"And we won't give a damn if the citizens are slaughtered," Blane Grove, another of Drenn's cronies, spoke up. "Less for you to worry about, when you take over the King's City."
"Not bad for somebody who only had dreams of taking over the army," Derk Beadl chuckled as he handed me a bottle of wine. "Something to celebrate your new position-it's as good as done."
* * *
Sherra
A catalpa leaf sailed past me as I sat on the rock wall surrounding Kyri's garden. The wind had lifted it up and sent it flying along, before depositing it on the grass outside the perimeter divination I'd constructed.
Pottles said the leaves were heart-shaped, but they didn't resemble any heart I'd ever seen. This one, buoyed by the wind, had sailed quite a distance from the tree it had grown from.
It made me think of the airplanes of the enemy, and what kept them aloft. Sliding off the rock wall, I walked toward the leaf and lifted it from the ground. If I dropped it, without the cooperation of the wind, it would fall straight down or nearly so.
If I made a shield the proper size and thickness, would it sail on the wind?
If I sealed a bubble shield, would it float on water?
Merrin and Kyri had built their perimeter divinations to alert them to anyone passing through. I'd modified that design, making it possible to destroy anyone or anything my perimeter divination didn't recognize as friendly. Not only was it an alarm system, it was also a protection system.
Making my way back to the wall, I set the catalpa leaf down and lifted Pottles' small, pale-yellow shell-one of two things she'd brought me for my experiments.
Things like this may no longer exist, Pottles told me as she placed it in my hand. It fit in my palm and felt thin-delicate. I worried I'd destroy it. It's called a miracle shell, she added. I've had it for a very long time.
A miracle could be needed to keep it intact. It was the best of the two things, perhaps, that held enough of her power signature for me to use. She was quite careful with most other things, and hadn't formed attachments as she had with this.
One day soon, I'd ask her again about the red rose on her left wrist. She'd put me off when I first asked after my waking in Kyri's City. The idea that the red rose belonged to a murky and forgotten past hadn't left me; it had grown stronger, instead.
All the time I'd known her when I was younger, she'd hidden the rose from me with power. Perhaps when she told me about the red rose, she'd tell me more about her sister, too-the one who'd died serving Az-ca's army; the one whose death made Pottles angrier than anything else I'd ever seen.
You're wasting time, I informed myself. Settling into a comfortable position, I closed my eyes and delved into Pottles' power and visions in the shell, hoping to learn enough to pass it through my perimeter divination without setting it off.
Had I wanted to know about Pottles' sister?
Here was that memory, in full.
* * *
If I'd known I'd become a silent, invisible observer in a tragedy, I'd have backed away immediately. At least I only saw Pottles' memories, and not those of her sister, Daria.
Daria was beautiful and powerful, and I felt guilty for my intrusion into Pottles' recollections. I found myself in the King's palace far in the past, when these sisters were young.
"Who will you choose?" Doret, already a Queen, asked Daria.
"Marra has my heart," Daria replied.
Marra? That was a woman's name. My breath caught. How? Was it possible?
"She'll be the luckiest warrior in the King's army, then," Doret smiled at her sister.
The images shifted then-to the King's Council, where a new crop of trainees, Daria included, were making choices. Standing beside the King was another man. Straight and tall, he'd be handsome except for the cruel twist to his mouth.
The King's son.
Doret wasn't old enough to have birthed this one.
The King had been married before. Perhaps his first wife was dead and he'd remarried. Regardless, Doret stood on the King's other side, smiling at the trainees and her sister in particular.
"Father, I wish to claim Prince's Privilege," the King's son stepped forward.
Somehow, I understood that he was Prince Commander of the Army. He was also the King's eldest child, as well as holding the title of Crown Prince.
When had things changed?
Turning toward Doret, the Prince's smile turned vicious. "Which trainee do you choose, my son?" The King asked.
"I choose Daria," he said.
The weight of Pottles' grief at that moment threw me out of her memory, and I found myself gasping for breath atop Kyri's garden wall.
* * *
King's Palace
Kerok
"How goes the search for Merrin?" Father asked. The physician had coaxed him into rising from his bed to sit outside in his garden.
He hadn't been outside in a month.
Cursing the disease that robbed him of his strength and made his body frailer every day would be useless-but I did it silently anyway.
"We're catching up to him," I said. I still hadn't told Father about three former Council members who were now missing and likely entrenched in Merrin's camp. Father would see that as a failure on his part to deal appropriately with the situation earlier, and it could bring further harm to his fragile health.
"Good. You know what to do when you find him," Father rasped.
"How's your tea? Do you need it warmed?" I could do that easily, with the power I held. In freezing weather, a warrior was never cold. I could melt snow with my bare footsteps if I chose to do so.
"I could use a warmup."
I rose from my chair and placed heated hands around Father's cup. "There. That should do it," I smiled at him.
"Drenn always envied you-far too much."
"I know the Crown Prince is never allowed on the battlefield, but I believe just one visit during a battle would have convinced him he was much better off where he was."
"I never went," Father shook his head. "Perhaps you should rethink some of the laws when you, ah," he didn't finish.
"Father, you are still the King and we won't discuss those things until later."
"Thorn, I won't recover," he told me dryly. "We both know that."
"I know." I bowed my head as grief threatened to overwhelm me. Father was always there, secure in his palace and his position, while I'd fought the enemy for years. Life without his constant presence would be more difficult than any battle I'd ever fought, except, perhaps, for the one in which Grae was lost.
And the one where Sherra was lost.
She'd been so far away when she fought her last battle. There wasn't a body to carry off the battlefield; no ashes to bury. Had I lost all my hope that she'd return? Had she died without anyone to stand beside her?
You're thinking morbid thoughts, aren't you? Hunter arrived and bowed to Father while sending mindspeak to me.
"Have a seat, Hunt. I'll pour tea," I motioned him toward an empty chair at Father's outdoor table.
Have you had time to read the book? Hunter asked as I poured a cup of tea for him.
It's next on my agenda, I replied.
Still don't want to tell me why you're interested in it suddenly?
No.
Why?
You'll think I'm an idiot. I think that already; I don't need a second opinion.
Hunter drank tea to hide his smile.
All right, it was a dream, I snapped in mindspeak. Sherra told me about Thorn's book. It's nothing other than wishful thinking.
That's an odd dream to have, Hunter responded.
And that's why I asked you about the fucking thing.
"Touchy," Hunter waved a hand as he spoke aloud.
"What are you two discussing?" Father asked.
"Reading material," Hunter answered. "An old, dry biography on his namesake, King Thorn."
"Is that all?" Father snorted. "You probably should have read it long ago. I know Drenn did. He was likely searching for something your namesake did wrong, so he could hold it over your head."
"When did he read it?" Hunter was suddenly interested.
"Probably a year before he died. Maybe more-I don't remember exactly when it was. I found him at this very table, reading it. I was surprised, because he seldom read anything, including new laws and the changes to old ones."
"I can have Barth send someone to get it for you," Hunter offered.
"Go. Read." Father waved a hand. "Hunter and I can talk, now."
"All right." I rose from my seat and walked away from them.
* * *
Sherra
I'd covered Pottles' power with my own, in an attempt to get the shell through. My thought was that if I could convert the shell in that way, it would pass through the perimeter divination field without any harm.
Rose and Thorn: Black Rose Sorceress, Book 2 Page 4