Curse and Whisper

by A J Gala

  “There,” she said. “Very nice. You are ready to see her.”

  She was being kind, and he knew it. He knew he was hideous. No matter where he went, he found himself with the worst mug in the room. The only favorable thing about his appearance was the thick layer of stubble hiding a few of the unflattering angles of his face.

  The woman led him silently through the Marble Palace. It was like an eerie place out of his dreams. Everything was white and pristine and quiet. The servants cleaned and dusted meticulously, polishing all the gorgeous marble so that the gray veins looked like smoke in the air.

  The duchess’s study was enormous and featured a dais in the center with a comfortable white chair and a table. And there she was. Peyrs looked at her, his heart crawling up his throat. She was so tall and thin and shapeless, hidden in a warm white gown. Her back was turned to him. He could just barely see a hint of her long, tan, bony face and heavy eyelashes. There were white-gold pins in all the braids of her mousy hair, and they spiraled into one tight bun at the nape of her neck.

  He had such a hard time taking his eyes off her that he barely noticed the man at her side. He did not belong in her palace in his black clothes and leather armor, but he took a guess that he was her Master of Dusk. He handed her a piece of paper, and Peyrs squinted to read it. It was a flier. Flourishing letters announced an event, and he thought he spied the word Saunterton somewhere, but his eyes couldn’t adjust to all the white around him, so that was all he made out.

  “So.” The duchess’s voice was monotone, like one flat note being blown on a silver flute. “She’s having a party. This is perfect. Keep an eye on it for me, Lobsang. I want the date the second she makes the decision.”

  “Yes, duchess.”

  The man left, and once again, Peyrs’s full attention was on her. She turned to face him at last, and his mouth went dry.

  “The mystery man has risen.” She smirked.

  “I—” He struggled for words. “P-pardon me, duchess, but I’ve always been told that you were, ah, that you were—” he swallowed hard, “—plain. Homely, even. But my gods, you’re remarkable.”

  The catty grin on her face made him weak.

  “Ah, Orin. Of course. My little brother strikes again.”

  “I am acquainted, but only just.”

  Oksana sat and crossed her legs. “Well, mystery man, tell me about yourself. You were dragged out of a decrepit little hovel in the Wistwilds. A decrepit little hovel surrounded by dead, massacred bodies. You must have some tale.”

  “My name is Peyrs, my lady.” How was he to tell her what had happened? He couldn’t remember the political state of Davrkton. He couldn’t remember the political state of anyone, anymore. “I’m originally from Ebinno, but lately, I’ve been in Vandroya.” He watched her face go blank.

  “Vandroya.”

  “Yes. With the Hunters.” He felt like he was not choosing his words wisely. She didn’t hide it in her expression that she was deciding whether or not to kill him. He felt the heat behind her eyes like a thousand suns. “I was admittedly up to no good, and it was supposed to have a good payout, but you see… there was a complication.”

  “There certainly was, judging by Sir Ayvar’s description of your predicament.”

  It was not a name Peyrs knew, and he struggled to recall recent faces. It couldn’t have been anyone in the group of Hunters he had traveled with… not that he’d done a good job of remembering their names. Then, he remembered laying on the ground, being woken by sharp pains in his ribs. There had been a girl. Two girls. One was pressing on his bones to see if anything was broken, and shortly after that he’d passed out again.

  “Sir Ayvar… was he that man with the two girls?”

  “A good man,” Oksana mused. “He tries so hard to temper the psychotic tendencies of those two. I rather like them, all of them, Peyrs. And I’m trying to figure out if I like you too.”

  “The complication.” He would have to take his chances with the truth. “Duchess, please forgive me. I don’t know if any of this information is going to be useful to you—”

  “All information is useful to me. Spill it. All of it.”

  “The Hunters hired me because I am a pathfinder, a navigator, and I was to lead them through the woods in their search for someone very important—”

  “Yes, yes, the Protégé, I already know.”

  He was taken aback. “You do?” He could feel her devious pride swallow him up.

  “How do you think Lord-Hunter Cyrus found out and started this whole search? Oh goodness,” she laughed. “You didn’t think it was because of any hard work he did on his own, did you?” She uncrossed her legs and rose, making her way down from the dais. “Peyrs, I must make something abundantly clear.”

  “What is that, my lady?” He balled up his hands and felt the sweat at his palms.

  “I hold all the cards.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  She waved him away. “Continue with your complication. You were helping the Hunters find their Protégé. What happened? How did you come to be the way you were?”

  “It was a man who attacked me. This is going to sound strange, but it was Rhett Hallenar.”

  “From the queen’s brood in Suradia.” She clicked her tongue. “My Master of Dusk told me he was back on the mainland. What was he doing there?”

  “We thought he was helping us.”

  Oksana rubbed her shoulder in thought. “What an interesting development. The Queen of Suradia helping the Hunters.”

  “It’s nothing to do with the queen at all, my lady. I think, for Rhett, it was something personal. I believe he was acting very much against the queen’s wishes.” He stopped and wet his lips, remembering how the room had changed when the daemonologist had stepped inside of it with him and the nightwalkers.

  And then Peyrs remembered everything, and cold, icy terror dropped through him, head to toe.

  He knew exactly who had been in that room. He knew exactly who the nightwalkers were. Which meant he knew too much.

  “Peyrs?”

  His mouth was so dry. “All of it went so wrong. So quickly.” Fatigue and nausea came for him with the memories. “My lady, I must get to Suradia.”

  She folded her arms. “You must? Why? Do you have something to tell the queen that you can’t tell me?”

  Peyrs swallowed hard. “This can go very wrong for me, no matter who I tell or how I tell it. But she has to know what her brother has done.” A big part of him really wanted to see Rhett pay for how badly he’d beaten him. “And… and she should know who else was there. She should know Sinisia Alvax was there.”

  Oksana narrowed her eyes and took another step closer to him. “This keeps getting more and more interesting with every word that comes out of your mouth. Tell me, Peyrs, what was Queen Anavelia’s Master of Dusk doing with you, the Hunters, and Rhett Hallenar?”

  He knew too much. It would either kill him or save him. But at what cost?

  “S-Sinisia Alvax said she was looking for someone.”

  Oksana did not ask the follow-up question he expected.

  “Alright. Did she find them?”

  He couldn’t imagine why she wouldn’t ask him who she was looking for. But she stared at him with such intensity, he expected she could read every thought right off his face.

  “Yes,” he answered. “But it turns out that it was the same person Rhett Hallenar was looking for.”

  “Now help me connect the dots, Peyrs. Why did Sinisia and Rhett join up with the Hunters to find this person? Why did they think the Hunters would lead them to this person?”

  She must have known he wasn’t going to tell her who that person was, Peyrs thought. There was no other reason to hold the question back than knowing it would be a waste of breath. She was trying to pry other clues out of him.

  He surrendered a detail. “Because the person is a nightwalker.”

  Oksana grumbled and started pacing. “Is everyone looking for the P
rotégé?”

  “My lady, it’s as I said. I don’t think the Protégé had anything to do with it. This was personal. The Hunters were merely a resource for both Rhett and Sinisia.” He couldn’t tell her the extra detail. And he wondered if there was a way to get out of spilling it. “I wonder if perhaps Queen Allanis would know who it was. I… I am afraid I don’t know anything about the person. I was attacked and fell unconscious before I could find out. I should go to Queen Allanis and find out. And I believe she should know about Sinisia Alvax as well.”

  He heard an unnerving little laugh from the duchess.

  “Peyrs, there’s something you won’t tell me. I know there is. You do know who they were looking for, don’t you? And what’s so important about Queen Allanis knowing what her friend’s Master of Dusk is up to?”

  He knew exactly who Sinisia and Rhett were after. And he knew why. Allanis would expect no less from Rhett based on what he’d gathered simply by being around him for a short while, but she would not be expecting it from Sinisia.

  “Duchess, I am afraid that this will incite a war.”

  It wasn’t possible for it to get any quieter, but it felt that way all the same. The word echoed in his mind.

  “Are you afraid that I’ll try to stop you?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know what you’re after.”

  “I want to start a war.”

  He could feel something powerful radiating from her, and all he wanted to do was bask in it.

  “Duchess?”

  “I need to start a war. Vandroya and Saunterton, ideally. This is a little different, but I think I could make it work. I’ll take it, either way.” She pursed her lips in thought. “I can work with this. I can. I am very curious to know how Queen Allanis reacts to this information. So, Peyrs, I will make a deal with you.”

  “A deal, my lady?”

  “Yes. What you do and do not know makes no difference to me anymore, but here’s my offer: I’ll send you to Suradia with an escort. You tell the queen what you must, and you do everything in your power to twist what you saw. I want her to think her brother is working with Sinisia and Queen Anavelia to—” she paused and stirred her hands in the air, trying to conjure up an idea, “—to find this Protégé and use them to conquer any cities and towns that won’t swear fealty to Anavelia. Sell it for me, won’t you?”

  “That would scare Queen Allanis very much. Expectations have been on Suradia for years to swear fealty—”

  “Yes, I know. I know. If you survive this, I want you to come back here, and I will keep you safe. Do you understand? And if you try to dodge me, Peyrs, I have an assassin in every town east of the Undina Loch. You will be found.”

  But she knew he would come back. His eyes said he was enamored and terrified all at once.

  “Of course, duchess.” He didn’t feel good about it, but he did feel good about what trouble he could cause for Rhett. His face was still sore from the first punch. “May I ask why this war?”

  Oksana took in a contented breath and let it out. “Freedom, Peyrs. Now go on, back to your room. I’ll have everything prepped. You will be sent off soon.”

  The same woman from before led him out of the study, and Oksana headed back to her throne to view the flier and its garish print about a seasonal party in Saunterton. It boasted a secret, special announcement.

  “Did you hear that?” Oksana asked.

  Ayvar stepped out from behind a pillar, his dark furrowed brows a stark contrast to his wispy white hair.

  “I did.”

  “I told you our mystery man wouldn’t see you.”

  “Why did you want me to see your exchange with him, my lady?” he asked. “Sola, Scara, and I were ready to leave all of this and head back home.”

  “What do you know about the Hallenars, Sir Ayvar?”

  The audacity of her question stunned him but also confused him. He didn’t think he had done or said anything to give suspicion to any sort of connection.

  “Nothing,” he said.

  “Nothing?”

  “Nothing anymore.” His words were bitter. He should have left the Marble Palace days ago.

  Oksana smiled and sighed. “Fine. But if that changes for any reason, let me know at once. You are free to go.”

  Torah struck the match against the rusted iron railing of the Convent balcony and brought the flame to the rolled leaf between his lips. The night sky was bright with lightning when the joint lit up red. He breathed it in with the rumble of thunder and took in the sight of the small storm that had come in.

  He finally had one beautiful, quiet moment alone. Solitude had been impossible on the journey from the Western Peninsula, and he thought he’d have his big break upon arriving at the Convent. There were so many little places to escape to in the abbey, and an entire forest below to hide in. Even in the town of Davrkton he could disappear into a rowdy bar and have a different kind of solitude.

  He exhaled through his nose, and a plume of smoke vanished into the light rainfall. His vice of choice was a dangerous one. Letalis was like a game of roulette where the outcomes were either an unparalleled calm or literal heart-stopping excitement. He would have welcomed either feeling.

  Now that he was back, it was harder than ever to find peace. It hadn’t been that way before, though. Just now. Now that he’d brought Korrena with him.

  Korrena. His soul wanted to relax with the letalis, to sigh and drown in the gentle ecstasy the leaf could provide. But Korrena ruined his high every time she invaded his thoughts.

  His only remaining family member was wicked to her core now that they’d been bloodkin for nearly a hundred and forty years. Her humanity had left the second she knew she could do whatever she wanted and survive the consequences. She feared nothing.

  Meanwhile, he feared having nothing to lose. She used to be that thing to lose. There was a time he loved her more than anything. A time where they could only trust each other. Or at least that was what they’d convinced themselves to think.

  But her time had come.

  He took another drag, longer than before. The high still didn’t reach him. It couldn’t, not when the thick fog of disappointment permeated his being. He would love again. She would tell him otherwise, and she’d say it so fiercely that he’d believe her just like all the other times. And then he would come back to his senses.

  “Still sucking in that fucking leaf, I see.”

  Her voice weighed on him like tar. “Korrena.” He exhaled.

  “That letalis shit will kill you.” She came up behind him from the second floor of the library, where the balcony came out from. “You can’t just get a cheap high off merrygrass like everyone else? Hm? You have to go for the shit that stops people’s hearts?”

  “So maybe it does. And maybe it will. One of these days.”

  “Then why do it?”

  “Because until then, it feels good.”

  She huffed. “There are lots of things that feel good. We used to partake—”

  “No.” He chewed the inside of his cheek. “I told you we’re done. I’m not doing that anymore.”

  She sat on the balcony facing him, kicking her legs. “If the day ever comes where I’m as boring as you, please kill me.” He said nothing, and she huffed louder. “Come on! What the hell is the matter with you? You come back to me one day, after decades of being away, and for one fucking night things were like they used to be! Then, the next day, just like that—” she snapped her fingers, “—it’s gone. You’re this now. Where’s all your sin? You used to love me—”

  “I do love you, Kor. I love you the way I’m supposed to.”

  She rubbed her chin. “Something happened. Here. You don’t look at a lot of these people the way you used to, do you? Ah, dear brother, what did you do?”

  “What do you want?” He extinguished the butt of the letalis on the railing.

  “Nothing.” She shrugged. “Just got bored of Louvita. Thought I’d give you a try. C
learly a mistake.”

  “How is Louvita? You’ve been talking to her a lot lately.”

  Korrena stared him down as though he were prey. “She likes me. I guess I like her. She gives me nice things, doesn’t protest when I want to skip into town and—” she smiled and ran her tongue along her teeth, “—satisfy myself.”

  There wasn’t enough left on the leaf to consider keeping. Torah flicked it over the balcony and put his hands in his pockets.

  “Please be careful around Louvita.”

  “Here we go…”

  “Korrena, she’s cruel, and she’s only going to use you. The second she’s done with you, you’ll no longer be welcome.”

  She laughed. “I’m not afraid of her.”

  “You should be.”

  “Tell me something, Tor. Tell me about what she’d do to me when I’m no longer useful while that boy she hates so much still has a place here. Obviously, he has no purpose, but everyone says he comes and goes as he pleases.”

  Torah’s stomach churned. He fought through the nausea and stared a hole straight through her.

  “He has a purpose. And you have no idea the things she’s done to him to make him bend to it.”

  Her grin was pretty. “What about the things you’ve done to him? Hm?”

  “You know what?” He took his hands out of his pockets and pointed at her. “Bringing you here was a mistake. Going back home to see you again was a mistake! I shouldn’t have brought you back into my life.”

  Her mouth hung open, but she had no words. She couldn’t decide if she was crushed or enraged, but by the time she had thought of anything to say, Canis and Talora were on the balcony with them.

  Talora’s smile was enormous. “Are we interrupting anything?”

  Korrena ground her teeth and pushed off the railing to join them. She clenched her fists. “What does it look like? Of course—”

  “You aren’t.” Torah’s voice was calm and level. “How are you two? Can we help you?”

  “Miss Tal wants a game!” Canis clapped his hands together. “I keep telling her I’m no good at the Liar’s Game, but she said I can’t be any worse at it than the rest of you!”