The Blood Witch (The Blood Reign Chronicles Book 1)

by Nielsen, D. S.

  Kavarina and Larysian had provided Allysix with attendants, which was a very nice change. The attendants didn’t really know their jobs very well since they were not used to attending to royalty, but they could be taught. However, one of the first attendants Allysix had received was completely insufferable. The woman dawdled in her duties and never learned from her mistakes. She had angered Allysix to the point that she finally had to put the woman to better use.

  Kavarina had not been happy about having to remove a dead body from her inn. The innkeeper said that her establishment was not the type of place that had this kind of thing happen. But Kavarina managed the situation in a very discrete and efficient manner.

  Allysix was to meet with Magistrate Jaren tonight. It was finally time for her to take control of the city before things got any further out of control. She would eliminate Jaren, but she needed to make it look like an accident. The last thing she needed was to have anymore suspicions raised at the moment. The thought had occurred to her, to perhaps have Talvin take care of Jaren and make it look like a robbery attempt. But she dismissed that idea for the fact that it would cause too much attention on the City Watch for not doing their jobs. The watch was already losing some credibility because of the dead bodies that had been found in and around the city with no apparent motive or suspects.

  Allysix finally settled on a poison that she obtained from Maggas. It was very potent and only a very small amount was needed to stop the heart. There would be no marks on the body, and it would appear as if the magistrate died naturally in his sleep.

  According to Maggas, only a little of the poison was needed to do the job, but it worked slowly and would take several hours to take effect. This way she could slip some of the poison into Jaren’s wine during their meeting and after she was gone, Jaren would go to bed and simply not wake up again. Magistrate Jaren was not an old man, but he wasn’t that young anymore either. It shouldn’t be too far fetched that he died naturally without any suspicion of foul play.

  Allysix was enjoying a hot bath at the moment in preparation for the meeting later with Jaren. The attendants who were waiting on her now were very good and knew their place well. Once she was finished with her bath, the attendants dried her off and dressed her in one of her finer dresses that the seamstress had made for her. She was standing looking into the mirror regarding her own reflection. She liked the long, flame colored hair this Brigette had. It detracted just enough from her eyes as to not make them conspicuous. Her deep crimson red eyes had been at times a source of suspicion and fear to some people. With the flame red hair framing her face, her eyes only looked dark brown unless you looked very closely.

  As Allysix examined her reflection, a troubling thought crossed her mind. The boy Jak should be in the city by now. There had been no word from her men that had been sent to retrieve him. It had to mean that the boy had either escaped or evaded them. She wanted to find the boy Jak.

  The reflection she gazed upon in the mirror gave her an unusual feeling inside…….it reminder her of Jak. She realized that since she had blocked the link with him she had been feeling……lonely. He had been with her, at least inside her head, since her awakening. Now it felt like something was missing, and it was all very troubling. She had never relied on anyone before in her life and she certainly never needed anyone. For that matter, she didn’t need anyone now! What was she thinking? Were the girl Brigette’s thoughts and emotions seeping through again? If so then why did they seem so much as if they were her own feelings? This was all very strange to her and she did not like it at all. But it was something that would have to wait. Perhaps she would have Baalnar send some of the City Watch to find Jak later. But right now, she had more important matters to deal with.

  Once her attendants had finished brushing her hair and left the room, then Allysix took out the small velvet pouch that contained the vial of poison. Removing it from the pouch, she held it up to the light to examine it more closely. It looked harmless and benign, much like water. Maggas better be right about this. Allysix slipped the small vial of clear liquid into her dress and set off to meet Jaren.

  Chapter 15

  As they entered Yilavo City, Jak was awestruck by the vastness and grandeur of it. Even though it had looked fairly small from the Lihali plateau, it was apparent now that he had never seen anything like this in his life. There were so many people together in one place, and the number and size of the buildings were staggering. Some of the structures that he had seen so far were four or even five stories high.

  Gin was so impressed with the astonishing sight that she was speechless, which was very unusual for her. The little girl’s head just swiveled back and forth while she wore a look of wide-eyed wonder along with a big smile that split her face. Kragston and Hellstone were the biggest cities either of them had seen before now. But those were tiny villages in comparison to the size of Yilavo City.

  After entering the city, Benjim informed the others that he knew a long time friend in the city who owned and inn. According to Benjim, the inn was called the Sailor’s Delight. This is where they would stay while they searched the city to try and find the witch.

  It turned out that the old man had spent a fair amount of time here in Yilavo City recently. When Jak question him about, it saying he thought Benjim had recently come from the west, the old man chuckled. It appeared that to Benjim, recently meant in the last thirty or forty years. If forty years was recent to Benjim it made Jak wonder what the old man meant when he had said a long time ago.

  Jak continued making his way down the street and even it fascinated him. The streets were all paved with some sort of flat rectangular stones that were placed together almost like pieces of a puzzle. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how many stones it would take to pave all the roads in the city like this. The horse’s hooves rang loudly off the paving stones and echoed from the stone walls of the buildings.

  As they proceeded further into the city, there were people everywhere Jak looked, walking down the streets, going into and out of shops, they were everywhere. He had a hard time believing there were this many people in the whole world, let alone all crammed together in this one place.

  While plodding slowly through the throngs of people, Benjim told them that there were restrictions as to where you could and couldn’t ride a horse in the city. According to the laws of the city, there were only a few main roads which led down to the docks where horses were allowed to be on the streets.

  From what the old man said, the Sailor’s Delight Inn was located on one of the main roads so they could ride their horses to the inn and stable them there. After that, they would be on foot for the rest of the time they would be in the city.

  Jak glanced over and noticed that Nicoldani didn’t seem all that impressed by the immense size of Yilavo City. The big man just wore and uninterested look as if this was just an everyday common sight. When he asked the big man about it, Nicoldani told him that this was only a large village.

  “Dallonburo, now that is a real city,” the big man said, “it’s many times larger than this fishing village. The queen’s palace alone would take up half of this small town.”

  Jak thought Nicoldani had to be pulling his leg. Either that, or the man was just boasting about his own hometown to make it sound grander than it really was. There was no way a city could be bigger than this, Jak thought.

  The small party of four continued to make their way down the long road through the city for what seemed like leagues to Jak. There was just so much to see here in the big city. There were shops lining the streets for just about everything from shoemakers to blacksmiths, seamstress and bakeries. It was all so wonderful to him that he couldn’t seem to get enough of it.

  Finally, Benjim stopped in front of a large four-story building with whitewashed walls. There was a painted wooden sign hanging over the door of the establishment which read ‘Sailor’s Delight Inn’. The building was made mostly of stone and bricks, and had an odd overlapping tile roof th
at Jak had never seen before today. Many of the buildings here in Yilavo City had that same type of roof and he wondered what the roof could be made from. It seemed to be molded in a way from some type of clay, but he wasn’t really sure what it was.

  Benjim dismounted his horse and turned towards the door of the inn. Before making even one step towards the door, the old man was intercepted by a young man of lean build and short-cropped light hair, who was well groomed and well mannered. “Pardon sir, but do you wish to take rooms in the Sailor’s Delight?” the man asked politely.

  “As a matter of fact we do,” Benjim said with a pleasant smile for the man.

  “In that case may I stable your horses for you? That is, if it pleases you sir.” The stable boy said bowing his head formally.

  “Certainly you may,” Benjim said cheerfully as he handed the reigns to the young man.

  Almost immediately two more young men of similar dress and build as the first appeared out from the stables to take the other horses. Jak started to untie his saddlebags from his horse when Benjim forestalled him, telling him to leave them be.

  “They will be brought to our rooms shortly lad,” Benjim explained. “We do not want to step on any toes here. The guilds can be a little touchy about that kind of thing.”

  Jak had no idea who or what a guild was, or what the old man was even talking about, but he left his saddle bags strapped to the horse and followed Benjim through the large double doors into the inn.

  The common room at the Sailor’s Delight was larger than the entire inn at Kragston had been. It could quite possibly hold seventy-five or more people, maybe even a hundred, Jak thought as he looked around in wonder.

  There was a raised floor at one end where an old man sat on a stool playing a lute and singing some song that Jak had never heard. The music brought back bad memories since it reminded him of the evil little man Mortikus. Jak tried not to listen to the music just in case the old man with the lute was trying to cast a spell on him. But suddenly he realized how silly he was being, since none of the other people in the common room were asleep or even seemed to notice the man playing the instrument. They were more interested in their ale and raucous conversations rather than the old man playing the lute.

  Benjim made his way through the crowd dodging serving girls who were busy trying to serve everyone, along with tipsy patrons that had already had too much to drink, until he finally reached the bar. “Is Master Ulaban about?” Benjim asked the barkeep in almost a shout to be heard over the noise of the crowd.

  “He is in the kitchen right now, and pretty busy,” the barkeep said with a wry grin. “I’ll send someone to fetch him, but it might be a bit before he can pull himself away from the cook pots. Would you like some drinks while you wait, or perhaps some food?”

  “Yes, something to drink would be nice,” Benjim answered. “But if it is not too much trouble, when you get a chance could you inform Master Ulaban that Benjim is here to see him? He will know my name.”

  While they were waiting, Benjim and Gin took up seats at the bar since there were only two free stools, which left Nicoldani and Jak standing. The barkeep served them their drinks and then told one of the serving girls that were headed for the kitchen to pass the message on to Master Ulaban.

  After just a few moments, a large, bald, jolly man came bursting out of the kitchen doors. The man had a round belly and his apron was stained, but he wore a large grin on his face.

  “Benjim! Good to see you old friend! How have you been? I have not seen you in ages. I thought you might be dead.”

  Benjim chuckled before answering, “Not yet my friend, I still have one or two good years left in me. How have you been Luxarn? I see you are still alive.”

  “Well yes, but I keep getting older every year but you still look the same as you did when I met you forty years ago.”

  The two men embraced as old friends then spoke briefly about old times, and what each other had been doing for the past several years. They tried to get caught up with what had happened with each other over the years but the innkeeper seemed in a rush. After a moment, Benjim briefly introduced the rest of his party. Jak decided he liked the innkeeper. Luxarn was a very pleasant man with a warm smile and welcoming demeanor.

  “Where’s my manner’s,” Luxarn said abruptly, “I’m loosing my wits in my old age. Having to cook in the kitchen again isn’t helping much either. We just lost one of our cooks this past week. They just up and disappeared without a trace. Didn’t say anything about leaving, just never came back to work. I haven’t found a replacement for him yet, so I have to take up the slack. Doesn’t leave much time for socializing, now does it? Well enough of that, do you have rooms yet? You are staying with us aren’t you?”

  “No, not yet,” Benjim replied. “We have not gotten rooms, but we will be staying for a spell.”

  “Don’t you worry; I will have someone show you to your rooms straight away.” Luxarn stopped one of the passing serving girls and said a few short words to her.

  Before long, an older kindly looking woman came to greet them and show them to their rooms. Jak was to share a room with Gin, while Benjim and Nicoldani got their own rooms.

  As it turned out the inn wasn’t very crowded, at least for rooms, it was only the common room that was crowded almost every night. There were plenty of empty rooms available, but Gin wanted to stay in Jak’s room with him, which was fine with Jak. His little sisters company would be good in this strange new city.

  After Jak’s things were brought to his room and he was all settled in, the four met back in the common room for supper. It was the best meal he had eaten in what seemed like forever. Some of the food was strange, and he had never seen the likes before. There was a sort of creamy stew with small white and pink bits of some type of meat mixed in it. Jak had already eaten several bites, and thought it delicious before he looked a little more closely at what he was eating. They looked like fat white worms with pink and orange stripes and were a little spongy as he chewed them. He wasn’t sure what they were, but they were delicious so he continued to wolf the stew down and didn’t ask. Maybe it was better if he didn’t know.

  From what Jak could surmise, much if not all of the food that was served seemed to be seafood. He had never eaten seafood before since Elsdon was nowhere near the sea. The streams and lake around Elsdon held many fish, which they would eat often enough. But none of this food was like the fish they would catch back home.

  There was a large white chunk of meat that flaked apart, and was covered in a clear tart sauce. He thought that it was delicious as well. The serving girl brought something that looked like very large red insect legs, which Jak didn’t want any part of. However, Nicoldani and Benjim ate heartily of the strange things, cracking them open and eating the white meat they pulled from inside the hard shells. Jak had never eaten any seafood before now, but based on how good this was it was certain he would be eating more of it. Well, most of it anyway.

  Luxarn returned several times, but just briefly to make sure everything was to their liking. It was very busy now since the common room was all but full, being that the Sailor’s Delight was one of the more popular places in the city to eat and have some ale. Luxarn told Benjim that they would set down and talk at length on the morrow when things settled down.

  Between his full belly and the music the old man was playing on the lute, Jak started to feel very tired. It was clear by now that the old man with the lute was not casting any sleep spell on him, it was just that the music was very pleasant and relaxing. Besides Jak was very tired from all their traveling. Excusing himself, he retired to his bed for the night, along with Gin who followed close behind him up to their room.

  The rooms were very nice with large soft feather mattresses. Jak kicked his boots off and flopped on the mattress, enjoying the softness and comfort of it. It was a refreshing change from the hard cold ground that had been his bed so many nights before.

  Gin didn’t lie down right away, but inste
ad she sat on the edge of her bed and began the exercises that Benjim had been teaching her. The girl would not let a single night go by, if at all possible, without practicing her magic.

  “Do you know what you are doing? Be careful with that. We don’t want you burning down the inn,” Jak said with a joking smile.

  Gin stopped what she was doing and gave Jak a long-suffering look. “I do know what I’m doing. I’m not a fool. Benjim said I’m the best he’s ever seen. He says I have more natural talent that anyone,” she said with a haughty look for Jak.

  Jak smiled to himself as he rolled over and quickly fell fast asleep.

  The next morning the common room was much quieter than it had been the night before. There were only a few other people in the room, most of which were serving girls and other workers, cleaning the tables and running errands. Jak spotted Benjim and the others already sitting at one of the tables and walked over to join them. Luxarn was sitting at the table as well and speaking intently with Benjim.

  “You need to be careful old friend,” Luxarn was saying with a serious look on his face, “the city is in an uproar these days. Well not quite an uproar yet, but it’s most assuredly on the edge of it.”

  “What do you mean?” Benjim asked, “It seems quiet enough to me. I did not notice anything unusual when we entered the city?”

  “Quiet on the surface perhaps but there has always been underlying currents in the city, dissension and maneuvering between the guilds. But lately it has been much worse than usual. The fisherman’s guild has split in two, after heated arguments in the council meetings. I hear a few nights past they even pulled knives on one another at one of the meetings, and it nearly resulted in bloodshed. It’s unheard of.

  There has always been one fisherman’s guild…..always. Yilavo City is founded on fishing. We cannot have the fishermen fighting among themselves. It would be very bad for everyone. The price of some things has already doubled on account of the bickering over who has the rights to fish where.”