JOURNEY OF THE SACRED KING III

by JANRAE FRANK

  "Who is he, Arruth? Who is he?" Jysy demanded desperately, her eyes filling.

  But Arruth only wailed.

  Jysy woke with a scream. Alora lit the lamp, moved to Jysy's bed, and held her, rocking.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  ARRESTED

  Bryndel lifted the chimney from the lamp and lit it, turning the wick up. The day had been remarkably pleasant. He had taken Talons flowers and harassed a bowl of stew down her. Edouina had then gone to the Music Chamber with him for dinner. People were starting to talk to him again. On the way home, she had seduced him in the bushes near the library. He had never done it like that before, his heart racing with the fear of discovery. Bryndel felt replete and happy. He replaced the chimney and turned. His heart jumped into his throat. Galee sat on the window seat.

  All his joy dissolved into terror. "Leave me alone, Galee, please. Please, I'm begging you, leave me alone. I can't take any more. I just can't."

  "Poor, pathetic, little Bryndel. Oh, poor baby," she said, her voice oozing with mock sweetness and utter contempt.

  Bryndel collapsed on the floor, pushing himself into a corner where he balled up, crying. He saw Yahni Kjarten's dead face as his body lay in state. He saw Belyla's expression when she took Yahni in the throat, worrying him like a dog with a rat. He wanted to scream.

  Galee squatted in front of him, stroking his head. "I hope you're enjoying your dying bride-to-be. Get the most of her while you can, Bryndel."

  "Do you enjoy tormenting me, Galee? Like you did with Belyla and Yahni? Is that what this is about?" Bryndel could not think.

  "Maybe I should take you to visit your sister? Would you like to kiss Belyla? I'm very certain that Belyla would like to kiss you. She is getting very, very hungry. I have her locked in the caverns beneath the palace." Galee's fangs descended and she ran her tongue over them suggestively. "When's she hungry enough, I'll take her to visit Lord Kjarten's estates. It's true what they say of the obsession of the newborn. She'll simply love them to death. They will all taste like her beloved Yahni. The ghost of Belyla Wrathscar. What a lovely conceit."

  "What do you want?" Bryndel could barely get the words out. His sphincters tightened, threatening to let go as he watched her tongue slipping along her fangs – he had never seen them look so large before. She kept licking her lips, which had curled back from her teeth: Bryndel could not take his eyes from them.

  "Actually, a lot of people are looking a little too closely at your father right now. Some even wonder if he murdered that girl. It's just a short glance further to me. I've decided to give them something else to think about. To put them off the scent."

  She seized Bryndel by the hair, twisting his head around to expose his throat. Then she turned his head back again with the dispassionate gaze of someone contemplating a meal.

  Bryndel realized, in a sudden rush of knowledge, what she intended. "No. No." Warmth trickled down his leg as, no longer able to control his terror, he wet himself.

  Galee jerked him backwards, pinning him effortlessly. She struck hard, driving her fangs savagely into his neck.

  Bryndel screamed briefly and fainted.

  * * * *

  Mohanja leaned on his pike, feeling his leg start to throb, and trying to ignore it as he listened to Wrathscar shouting in the aisle between the two rows of councilors' tables before the dais. It had been just over a month since the last one of Wrathscar's episodes in the council chambers, and Mohanja had a bad feeling about this one. He glanced at the Grand Master and saw how tired the old mon looked. Worse than ever. Whatever was wrong with him, the healers couldn't find it anymore than they could find what was wrong with the heir. Mohanja wished his master would allow that Willodarian mage to have a look at him, but Takhalme refused.

  "I want those vampires found and I want them found now!" Lord Wrathscar paced back and forth, shaking his fists and raging. He was in rare form, having fed well and been properly prepared by Galee. "If the servants had not heard him scream and answered, my only son and heir would be dead."

  A single chair sat empty: Lord Derryl was away, having ostensibly taken his wives hunting at a nearby lodge he owned; but Mohanja suspected he was actually trying to remove his loved ones to safety. Mohanja did not blame him, although he feared that he would find himself in dire straits without him. They had never needed Derryl more than now. If only Channadar had not lost his seat on the council three years ago because of that incident with Galee.

  Takhalme nodded at Wrathscar. Mohanja thought the Grand Master looked old and tired, and noticed that his hair had long streaks of white that had not been there last summer. He worried, knowing that these scenes of Wrathscar's always left the Grand Master impossibly weary, as if the lord's anger sucked the already waning life and energy from him. Takhalme had begun to make his decisions out of a simple desire to get matters over with and go back to his rooms, rather than to reach a good conclusion.

  "As do I," the Grand Master said.

  "Perhaps they don't want the wedding to take place, my lord," Galee said, her voice soft, suggestive, yet loud enough to be heard by all. "Perhaps, your son's suicide attempt a few months ago was a vampire's work. They get inside people's minds – make them do things they do not wish to do."

  A shocked murmur ran around the chamber. The council was already jumping at noises in the night and starting at shadows on the lawns at midday. They were turning into huddling rabbits waiting to be eaten and fully expecting it to happen. None of them had any faith left in the ability of the Guild to protect them. The bodies of two Guildsmyn who had gone hunting for vampires had been found the next day nailed to the doors of the temple itself. Everything seemed to be falling apart. Everyone was frightened.

  Galee soaked it up. The council could be stampeded now. They were ripe for taking. Her only disappointment was that she had not yet found a way for her pawns to break into the temple, desecrate the altar, and murder the Patriarch. That would come eventually. And Channadar and Derryl. Let us not forget Channadar and Derryl, she thought.

  "I want that Hornbow woman and that foreign mage of hers taken in hand. I want them locked up and examined by the priests," Lord Wrathscar demanded.

  Mohanja felt a thread of tension. He could see from the expression on Takhalme's face that his master thought this a far more reasonable demand than Wrathscar's previous one. After all, if they were innocent, the priests would release them. And it had been the priests who had come to Edouina's defense. Who could really object? They could send them to the temple and wash their hands of the whole business. And if they were vampires? Well, then life would quickly go back to normal and all would be well. Wrathscar would be satisfied and there would be no more of his screaming fits on the subject of Edouina and Dynarien that made everyone present cringe. Mohanja could see the reasoning in every line of his master's face. And it was wrong somehow. But where?

  "Are there any objections?" Takhalme asked his councilors.

  Mohanja could see that Takhalme hoped there would be none, that they could have it over with and he could rest. It was always so hard for his master to think when he felt this drained. When no one replied, Takhalme turned to Mohanja Raam. "Make it so. Have the captain of my guard arrest them."

  That was when it came to him, and Mohanja knew where it was all wrong. But he had to obey. The Jedruan left to fetch the captain of the guard to see the order carried out. However, as soon as he left the guard, he signed to his shadows and found an alcove just off the second floor landing where they would not be seen. Aramyn, his nondescript face made even more prosaic by a bit of workingmon stubble, and Hofkahn, a youth barely past his schooling, slipped in beside Mohanja.

  "Aramyn, this went down too easily," Mohanja told them. "It makes me nervous. Go to the temple and make certain they arrived. If they did not, then go to Queiggy and see that they are found. Go together. I want no unprotected Guildsmyn. We've already had too many deaths."

  "That leaves you unguarded," Aramyn said.

&
nbsp; "I'll chance it. I'll return to the council chambers and remain there either until the session ends or someone comes to escort me to my apartments at which time I'll plead my leg pains me and depart."

  "Your will, lord."

  * * * *

  Jysy answered the knock by opening the door without asking who was there first. There seemed to be little to fear with the guards stationed outside. The Captain of the Guard pushed in with six others, shoving the girl aside. Jysy half-staggered, regained her balance, and moved away from them. She pressed herself into a corner near the pantry door behind which her sister had once hidden.

  "What is it?" Edouina looked up. She sat in a chair at the table with Talons, where she had been reading aloud to her. They had all been passing the book around, taking turns. Talons did not feel like participating, but she was enjoying listening to the others. It was one of those rare days when she felt like getting up. Some of the guards, crowding in behind the captain stared at Talons. Her haggard face definitely suggested her as a vampire's victim: she looked half dead.

  Dynarien sat on the couch beside Alora, as they waited for their turn with the book.

  "Edouina Hornbow? Mage Dynarien?" The captain asked. "We are here to arrest you both on a charge of vampirism. You are to be given into the custody of the High Temple, to be held for twenty-four hours or until the priests can establish your innocence or guilt."

  "The temple this time. So be it." Edouina stood and turned around, putting her hands behind her back. They tied her.

  "No," Talons protested, rising to her feet, anger lending her a momentary strength. "Don't take them. They haven't done anything. I order you to leave here immediately. Let them go."

  "It's all right, honey," Edouina drawled. "Eshraf will not let this get out of hand."

  The captain shook his head at Talons. "The Grand Master's orders. You cannot countermand them."

  Talons sank back onto her chair, a wave of dizziness making her head ache. Her eyes filled. "This is not right."

  Alora moved to her side, holding her. "I know it isn't," she murmured in Talons' ear. "Eshraf won't let anything happen to them." Jysy had backed close to them and Alora whispered in her ear. "Get on to your classes, but tell Yukiah when you get there."

  Jysy nodded and ran out alone for the first time in weeks.

  The guards produced several long, braided leather strips dyed crimson, a livid-flesh purple, and coal black. Dynarien suspected it to be a kind of spellcord. He had not yet encountered a spellcord that could hold him, so he was not worried. Things that held mages did not work well on a yuwenghau like himself. He let them tie him.

  The Captain parted with the guards in the hall, going back to other duties. Edouina wondered at that. The expression on his face suggested he was washing his hands of the matter. They marched them out of the palace, with ropes tied to their bonds and held in the hands of soldiers, crossbows leveled at their backs. Should they try to run or jerk the ropes from their captors' hands, they could catch a deadly bolt in their backs. Edouina had the strangest feeling that the guards were hoping they would try to flee. But that made no sense. Then instead of turning left toward the temple, they turned a hard right, heading into the dense undergrowth beside the training field where the Guildsmyn practiced stalking. She realized that her instincts had been right.

  "They're going to kill us," Edouina hissed. "Do something."

  Dynarien called power, only to feel it recoil back at him. He tried to reach for his sister and again felt the recoil. He tried to snap them and they would not break. "I can't," he said, his eyes desperate.

  "Then we die."

  * * * *

  Philomea watched the guards march Dynarien and Edouina through the Great Central Hall, and smiled contently on Lord Westli's arm. She snugged herself against him, laying her head on his shoulder so that she could look up into his eyes. Philomea whispered in his ear, "You did it, darling. They'll be soon be dead. I should reward you. Show you how happy I am."

  Westli shivered. Philomea could feel his reaction to her hunger. "My myn always obey orders. I hand picked them for this duty."

  "Walk me about. I see Lord Anghee. We haven't congratulated him on his newest daughter."

  Philomea pulled Westli toward the other end of the room, aiming so that she passed close to Channadar and his crowd. She had begun to dress like Galee in tightly cut bodices and plunging necklines that revealed the upper edges of her high breasts and the sweet cleft between them. Philomea liked the way it drew myn's eyes to her, male and female alike. Leeza no longer wandered the hall with the other fireflies. She was always sitting in one of the chairs near Tiderider or on the couch with Channadar. Philomea wondered at that. It was almost as if they had imprisoned her. Philomea had to pass very close to catch a whiff of her delicious scent. She could tell why her father wanted that one. Philomea wanted her too. There was a taste to the smell of her blood that called to her. She wanted to know what it was.

  Yolany watched her come closer and smiled at her. Then flinched as Leeza noticed this and rose to bump her arm. Leeza was always doing that and it annoyed Philomea.

  So Philomea continued on until they reached Lord Anhgee.

  If only Leeza could be separated from the others, it would take but an instant to snatch her.

  "Lord Anghee," Philomea said, politely smiling. "Congratulations on your daughter. I know it's coming late, but I've been so very busy."

  Anhgee nodded. "I quite understand. She's a month old and people are already asking about dowry and offering their sons." He sighed heavily.

  Philomea continued with her small talk for a while, watching Leeza from the corner of her eyes, feeling hungrier all the time and, when she saw there was little chance of the female leaving the others, she made her excuses and led Lord Westli toward the Guard Annex. "It is time for your reward, My Love."

  Westli shivered.

  * * * *

  Bryndel lay staring at the ceiling, fingering the wound in his neck. A priest had cauterized it to stop the bleeding. Galee had deliberately left it oozing. Not enough to kill him, but enough to upset everyone. He felt weak, ill, and terrified. He was also ashamed. Galee and his father intended to use this as a pretext to murder his only friends. His father had placed guards at his door. He could not get messages out or visitors in. Galee had found a new healer for him, but he didn't like the mon. He felt impotent and worthless. He could not think of any solution.

  His mind formed thoughts slowly, spinning in a dizzy whorl of multi-colored images, which he suspected was caused by the strange medicine the healer had given him. I want ... I want to be free. Death is freedom. It beckons, but I cannot reach it. I am tired... I am tired of being me. Hadjys, dark unforgiving judge, judge me harshly if you will. I will pay for my sins willingly. Only help me. Help my friends.

  Then sleep came and in his dreams Bryndel continued to pray without ceasing. He saw himself lying nude in a dark corner, bound hand and foot before an altar with a dagger hanging from a fraying cord at his throat. A mon of flame came to stand beside him and listened to his prayers. Bryndel felt the power of the mon as a roaring in his mind and the terror of the blade as a clutching in his chest.

  "How badly do you wish to be free?"

  "With all my heart and my soul," Bryndel replied.

  "There is only a single mon in Ishladrim Castle who can free you. A single mon in all of Havensword."

  "I want to be free, but I am frightened."

  "As you should be. The bindings are in so deep that taking them out could kill you. Are you prepared to die for your freedom?"

  "Yes! Yes!"

  "And for your friends?"

  "Yes."

  "If you would truly be free, truly be one with the faith, then lay yourself on the Altar of Just Punishment and accept my blade freely into your chest."

  The mon cut Bryndel's bonds, and the young mon stretched himself obediently on the altar on his back.

  Bryndel shivered against the cold stone. "D
o it."

  Hadjys shoved the blade in a fraction. "Are you certain?"

  "Yes," Bryndel said without wavering. "Send me to hell, if that will save them."

  Hadjys drove the blade into Bryndel's chest hard.

  Bryndel felt the life leaking from his body, and despite the searing pain, he smiled.

  Hadjys pulled the blade out, and the pain vanished as if it had never been. "You are worthy. I will give you the keys to your own and their salvation. But you must unlock the doors and that will take courage such as you have shown me this time.

  "Tell me what to do."

  "Then pray to me. And I will save them. My paladin has been marked by my belovèd Dynanna God of Cussedness and She is nearby."

  Bryndel prayed.

  He was still praying when he woke.

  * * * *

  Galee strode out of the palace heading for her rendezvous with her tame guards at the far end of the forested Stalking Grounds where no one would see her take custody of Edouina and Dynarien. Philomea's taking of Lord Westli, and presenting him to her as a gift was a marvelous move. If only Wrathscar was as cooperative as his daughters.

  Lord Wrathscar came with her to see to the disposal of the Guildsmon and the yuwenghau. He had been impossible to refuse. He wanted the first taste of Dynarien's blood and Galee had promised it to him in exchange for a promise of good behavior before the council. He had behaved well and now he would have his reward. When they neared the general area of the various training grounds, he spied Jysy skirmishing with some of the other students in a complicated exercise.

  "I want the sister," he said. Wrathscar turned aside and bolted toward the field where Jysy worked out before Galee could stop him.