by JANRAE FRANK
The argument ended, and Yahni heard several sets of heels clicking on the oaken floors, drawing nearer the room. He turned his head toward the door. Galee, her face flushed with anger, shoved Bryndel and Belyla in ahead of her.
Bryndel tried not to meet Yahni's eyes, brushing across them, then flinching away like a trapped animal with the same kind of panic that Yahni frequently saw in Belyla's.
"Both of you continue to disobey me," Galee growled, stalking past them to seize Yahni by the collar. She dragged the Guildsmon from Belyla's bed. Yahni staggered in her grip, tried to rise, and she shoved him roughly to the floor. Yahni's hips struck first and then his back. He lay looking up at the ceiling, unable to move.
Belyla clutched at Bryndel for support, but he twisted away from her, a look of sheerest horror on his face at what she had become.
"Where are you feeding, Belyla?" Galee demanded. "I told you to kill your Guildsmon. His death is taking too long."
Belyla began to cry. Galee seized the girl, thrusting her down on top of Yahni. "Watch Bryndel, and know the price of disobedience. Belyla!" Galee knelt, tangling her fingers in Belyla's hair, pressing her face into Yahni's neck. "Philomea tells that you have not yet fed from the throat, Belyla. That is where the blood runs freshest, fastest. Feed, Belyla!"
Belyla's fangs ripped into the artery. Yahni screamed and the last thing he saw was Bryndel vomiting on the carpet.
Galee is right, Belyla thought. The blood is best there. Yahni's blood tasted so rich and strong as it flooded Belyla's mouth, filling her with pleasure so intense she forgot everything. She had never taken him in the favored vein before, and the power of this feeding swept her humanity away. Yahni's breathing became stertorous, his eyes rolling up in his head as Belyla continued to worry him, his body convulsing beneath her.
"Stop iiiiitt!" Bryndel shrieked, his stomach twisting as he gasped and shuddered in horror. "You're killing him!"
"Let her finish," Galee said, inclining her head interestedly. "It is long past time for Kjarten to have died."
But Bryndel's heaving words had reached Belyla, calling her back to self-awareness, and she released Yahni with her cheeks flushed, her lips and chin dribbling his blood. Belyla paled, drawing farther away from Yahni whose body continued to tremble and jerk in small convulsions. "What do I do?" she whispered desperately.
"Put your own blood on it to close it. Lick it. Then amphereon or enlokieyn," Bryndel supplied from his meager Guild training, what little he had learned before they found him unfit and tossed him out. "Take him to my room."
A swipe of her tongue closed the wound. Belyla wept, lifting her husband up, and sidling from Galee, eyes wide. Galee laughed at her. "The lesson has been taught. There are places I can toss his body where it will never be found once the Dance ends. Don't make it a long one, Belyla, I am tired of watching," Galee called after the retreating girl. "If you don't do it soon, I will."
"I hate you, Galee!" Bryndel cursed, backing away from her. Then he spun, fleeing after his kit in the other room to try and save Yahni.
* * * *
Osterbridge leaned forward in his chair, eyes downcast and focused on his folded hands. The more dead ends they found in their search for Yahni, the more he felt as if a wound were opening in his heart. Terrys sat upon her couch with Jajinga beside her and the low table separating her from Osterbridge. The morning sun shone bright through the windows. He glanced at her from time to time, barely lifting his head as he worked hard at avoiding eye contact. Yet he could tell that Terrys had already read their expressions and knew that something very serious had happened.
Jajinga caught the tiny lifting of his head, and nodded at him to begin.
Osterbridge gave a troubled sigh. "Guild has sealed Yahni's records. They think he's dead."
Terrys' face went pale and then crumpled up with grief. "He can't be."
"Terrys." Jajinga covered her hands with his. "They would not do that without good cause to believe it's true. Otherwise they would have made an open case of the records. If Wrathscar found out about him, then he's probably dead."
Tears started silently down Terrys' face. They had all known the risk in Yahni's love for Belyla. The sense of invincibility had gone out of them. They had been unable to protect the young couple. Terrys squared her shoulders and sat straighter as she told them what she had discerned from her meeting with Philomea.
"That seals it. Wrathscar discovered them," Jajinga said.
"I'm sorry, Terrys. I'm really sorry." Osterbridge's face had gone hard to hide his emotions. "If we could at least recover his body or rescue Belyla."
Silence held until Jajinga broke it. "Then we should check out the mansion."
"You'll never get in. It's too well guarded. I've been there," Terrys said.
Silence again.
Osterbridge looked thoughtful. "We could at least have a look around the edges, from the outside. Tell us where it's located."
"I refuse to believe he's dead, Ceejorn. Wrathscar must have him." Terrys insisted, twisting her handkerchief. "I refuse to believe it."
* * * *
Belyla curled against Yahni, as she so often did, her eyes wet from crying. "There must be a way to get them, Yahni. To pay them."
Yahni now knew who all the players were, but what good did it do him? He would never reach the Guild alive; it was hardly likely he could get off the grounds. The most he could hope to do was hand the book to someone. The Guild would then know what had happened. And they would have the evidence.
Once he took the book, he could count his remaining life in minutes; each would count. No need to live long enough to speak: merely to pass the book. Yahni began to find the strength to rise out of the mire of hopelessness. He could not manage it alone, yet the Guild would stake Belyla and be done with it.
Her choice to make. Better for her to perish now while her soul remained pure.
They could hear Galee and Wrathscar's voices echoing down the hall.
"I will have the book in three days, Galee," Wrathscar shouted. "Four at the most. I've sent for it. You didn't think I'd keep it in the city, now did you?"
"No, you would not be that stupid."
Yahni looked up at Belyla as the arguing died down between Galee and Wrathscar. He strained to hear their words, but they had stopped talking. "Belyla, how badly do you want to get them? Desperately enough to perish?"
She clutched him tightly, saying in a hushed voice, "Yes."
* * * *
Tiderider kissed Leeza chastely on her forehead.
"Go now, and do not be seen."
Leeza slipped from the bed and then quietly from the room to the connecting chamber. Tiderider's room stood immediately to the right of Channadar's. She checked that it was clear and slipped into the lord's private suite. Normally he would have been waiting for her in the outer room. Instead she knew she would find him lying in bed. His eyes opened as she entered, those strange silver eyes that always drew her, that enigmatic smile that had taken her so long to learn to read.
"Channadar, I love you." She moved carefully onto the bed, curling her legs beneath her, removing Tiderider's crystal, and replacing it with his, which she took from her pocket.
He touched her cheek lightly. "I know. When the beast is slain, I will no longer need to hide my treasure beneath Tiderider's arms." Not even Juna and his mother knew about Leeza. Only Tiderider and Chucomei. It was especially crucial to keep her hidden from Galee.
Channadar had discovered Galee's agents poking around in his holdings and then Galee herself, digging at the edges of the Escarpment as if looking for a way to breech the walls or climb them. His Thirteen Chosen had killed her agents, hunting them in secret through the forests and mountains of Hellsguard. He and Galee had words after he found her digging. She tried to insinuate spies in his court, his towns, villages, and cities. He found them all. He banned her from his holdings, causing a political incident of immense proportions – only Patriarch Eshraf's intervention saved hi
m – and finally he invited himself to court with his Chosen and stayed there for three years, and was still there, watching her.
Her namesake, the original Gylorean Galee, was, according to legend, responsible for the kinstrife that caused Willodarus to drive Channadar's ancestors from the Sacred Realm of Imralon and then from the entire continent of Sealandia on which it lay. An inauspicious name, to say the least. She had the ears and the slanted eyes, but she was unlike any sylvan Channadar had ever seen and his mother agreed. The woman was no more Nordrei than Channadar was an orc. And she had threatened him in a language she thought he would not know, saying that there would be no heirs of his body, no mates for him – that she would make them die. He was a mon of two worlds. In taking on his father's lands and titles, he swore to abide by the laws of Creeya. Yet he was also of the Faery folk and their ways were far different. Tiderider would simply have hunted Galee after she made that threat. But Channadar had learned the rules of the game, the subtleties. He needed to prove her guilt while fighting her plots. So he hid Leeza, while keeping her close because he could not bear to be parted from her.
"Promise me, Leeza, if I should die, you will let Tiderider take you to Faewin."
Leeza did not argue. She could never be anything but strong for him. "I promise." She prayed that he would decide to at least reveal her to his mother. This sounded like it, but if she pressed him, he would retreat. So she did not. Leeza wondered if the others noticed the way he favored his arm still, as if he had to force it to work. Oh, surely they do! It had been over a month and yet he was not whole. He tired easily and all of it worried her. "Be careful."
"I try. But the game must be played, Leeza. For both our sakes. And the stakes are much higher than you realize."
"You are all that I care about, Channadar. All that is important to me."
He touched her lips. "Do not say that. Hellsguard not only stands against the enemy, we shelter the branch clan, which is hidden within it. Do you understand now? If the enemy knew of our relationship they might try to use you to force that knowledge from me. I know where they are hidden, how to reach them. This goes beyond my love for you or yours for me."
Leeza nodded. Whenever Channadar explained his motives it always made sense that he concealed their relationship. But once away from him, away from this room, her heart's voice spoke louder than her head's and sometimes she wanted to flee from him, because there was a growing sense of pain and frustration in equal proportion to the joy. "Yes, I understand."
Channadar stroked her face again, his eyes fond. "Good. When this is done, I will marry you."
Leeza's face brightened, her body filling with joy and her head with a dizzy rush of emotion. "Truly?"
"I would not say it otherwise. I did not intend to fall in love, believing it to be too dangerous. Yet I could not help myself. Yes. I want to marry you, if you are willing."
"Yes. Yes, that is my fondest wish."
"Then you must be patient. The game will not last much longer."
"I will be patient. I promise."
* * * *
"Well, well, Bryndel," Galee purred, gratingly. "I was beginning to think you were not coming." She lounged on the couch near the outer door into her chambers, wearing a filmy nightgown that left nothing to his imagination. He resented her whorish displays.
"What do you want this time, Galee," Bryndel growled with irritation, closing the door behind him. Galee had kept him terrified throughout his childhood when his infrequent defiance had taken the form of tantrums. She still deliberately frightened him sometimes. He had a feeling this would be one of those, which made him nervous, and in turn made him cross. No matter how hard he tried to ignore her summons, he always found himself answering, as if she were reeling him in like a struggling fish on a line.
"Not much." She rose and circled him, her head tilted to one side, her fangs showing as her lips parted. She tongued her lips, as if tasting something.
Bryndel felt uneasy watching her. "You said it was urgent."
"It is. I want you to increase the dosage."
Bryndel let go a long, shuddering breath. "I don't think that would be wise."
Galee snarled. "It is not for you to think."
Bryndel dropped his gaze, trying not to look at her, knowing her ability to seize his mind. She caught his face, forcing it up. He closed his eyes.
"Open them or die. Your father won't miss you. He might even marry Talons in your place and you know how he likes to break his women."
Bryndel opened them. Galee's eyes locked on his in a flash, rushing into his mind. Bryndel collapsed against her. She lowered him to the ground.
"Bryndel, don't make me do this again. Don't make me set a link in your mind. You saw how I could call Talons from her bed when I wished to feed on her. I can and will do the same thing to you. No one cares enough about you to break my links the way they did for Talons. No one loves you, Bryndel."
Bryndel shook his head, tears starting from his eyes as fear of her turned him into a little boy. "I won't disobey."
"That is better. You will double the dosage for the next three days. Then you will go back to the original dosage plus half again. It will stay at that level. They are doing something with herbs that's blunting the drug. I want a sample of that infusion."
Galee pulled Bryndel's pants down and spread his legs. "You will not remember coming here, nor anything we did or said, but you will remember my orders and carry them out." She pressed her face close to his thick, black hair, her fangs lengthened still more. She broke the skin and began to feed. Bryndel blacked out.
* * * *
The silent mutiny progressed through a chain of conferences carried out with religious devotion and dedication, simply by allowing information to be passed no higher than the Guild Wing. The exceptions to this were the up drawbridge which Queiggy had called, allowing the military branch to withdraw its members, those who wished to, into the Wing, and refuse to come out, on the grounds they wished to pray – an act that could be construed as defiance of authority. Meetings with the temple continued between the branches that served the Book, currently under the de facto control of Queiggy, and Patriarch Eshraf and Yukiah who controlled the training as armsmaster. Yukiah reported to Queiggy.
Yukiah and Queiggy spent each evening playing chess and, each Willoday, the last day of the week, the armsmaster brought him the reports that previously would have gone to Mohanja and Hanadi. Leonè had already provided the ones that he used to bring Galee earlier that same day. The Grand Master's lieutenants now had only empty titles. Once Queiggy had gone through the reports, he would decide what was safe to pass on and those reports only would go to the top, just enough to cover what they were doing. Some things would be altered, to become disinformation. The Guild would be protected.
As the armsmaster sat down, laying the reports on Queiggy's desk, the yuwenghau knew the news had to be bad. "Yahni?"
"It's been weeks since the swanspire. There's nothing at all on Yahni or Belyla. We must assume they killed him. I'm putting word out to stake Belyla on sight, before she starts Dancing the rest of his family."
"I agree. It was a gamble, Yukiah. We lost it. Ask Eshraf to pray for him."
"Already have. I spoke to him first."
"With the geis in place, they will not have been able to break into his mind. The vampire will not know what we are doing here."
"Eshraf is convinced they'll show their hands. We'll force them."
"We walk the blade of the knife and trust in our god."
* * * *
Alora sat at the small table with Jysy and Arruth; shuffling cards for another round of the new game she was teaching them. She started to deal and then paused. "Talons is usually up by now," she frowned. "Check on her, Jysy. She should have some lunch whether she wants it or not."
"Don't peek at my cards," Jysy admonished them as she left the table.
Arruth giggled and reached for them. Alora slapped her hand.
Jysy pu
shed the door open to the bedroom. "Talons? It's getting late and you still haven't eaten." She sat down beside Talons, shaking her gently. "Talons? Talons?"
Talons' head rolled limply to one side and Jysy screamed.
"What is it?" Alora demanded, charging in. Jysy stood with her back against the wall, having retreated as far from the unmoving assassin as possible. She had her arms pressed tightly against her stomach and was half-folded across them in distress.
"I think she's dead," Jysy whimpered.
Alora felt for a pulse and found it. "She alive, Jysy, calm down. Get the healer." She noticed tiny flecks of blood around Talons' nostrils. Arsenic poisoning? Alora shook her head, knowing that arsenic did not affect Sharani. Could something else similarly affect Sharani? Alora shook her head, knowing that arsenic did not affect Sharani. Could something else similarly affect Sharani? Although Jimi already checked, she wanted to talk to a Guildsmon herself, but she was not certain which one.
* * * *
Solance emerged from Talons' room after replacing the empty vial and glass in his satchel. He now wore a bright scarf, no matter how hot the summer day, that matched his sash. It looked like simply a new and odd affectation, but Solance was considered odd to begin with and so no one ever mentioned it. "I don't know what's wrong with her," Solance said, shaking his head. "I don't find evidence of this so-called drug you say your mage found in her system."
"Then make a guess," Edouina sounded cross and impatient. Once more Solance had managed to be the only healer on call.
"It's this unnatural pregnancy. Sharani bodies don't work like normal people. It's a miracle you people can reproduce at all. Stealing children from other women's wombs–"
"Get out," she snarled. Then louder, stamping her foot for emphasis, "Get the Hell out!"
Solance fled.
Alora looked up from her book. She was curled into a corner of the couch. "Don't be too hard on him. There are all kinds of rumors going around about unnatural Sharani sexual and reproductive habits. One guy is saying you people steal men's seed right out of their bodies by kissing them – on the ear – and that they're sterile afterward. You sort of collect it all and save it. There is the one claiming that you don't use males at all to reproduce, because you have both sets of organs and just cleverly disguise them."