The Zero Equation (The Zero Enigma Book 3)

by Christopher Nuttall

  Great Aunt Stregheria shrugged. “Henry feels that it is time for him to take the throne,” she said, calmly. “And I tend to agree with him.”

  “And so you provoked the House War,” I said. I hadn’t been able to understand how our enemies had managed to slip a blasting curse through our defences. I did now. Great Aunt Stregheria had carried the weapon into the hall. “You wanted everyone fighting so the Crown Prince had a chance to step in and invade the city in the name of order.”

  “By now, his troops occupy every strategic point in the city,” Great Aunt Stregheria said. I could hear the gloating in her tone. “And all of the key players in Magus Court are here, trapped along with their children. There’s no one left outside to organise further resistance.”

  I found it hard to believe. She was lying, right? Everyone said that Crown Prince Henry was a good son. King Rufus trusted him. I found it hard to believe that Henry would turn on his own father. I would sooner shave my head and go into exile than betray my family. But Great Aunt Stregheria clearly had betrayed her family ... even though I knew her to be one of the true grand dames. If she could betray us, why not Crown Prince Henry?

  “It was you,” I said, slowly. She’d tried to foster me, only a few short months ago. “You had me kidnapped.”

  Great Aunt Stregheria nodded, shortly. “Yes.”

  I stared at her. “Why?”

  “Which answer would you like?” Great Aunt Stregheria started to pace the room, walking around behind me. “I could give you several.”

  I tried to follow her with my eyes, but it was hopeless. She moved in and out of my blindspot as if she was permanently trying to keep me guessing which way she would go. I felt my neck start to ache as I tried to relax against the unseen restraints, unsure how long they’d last while holding me. The design she’d drawn on the floor was a good one, judging by what little I could see of it. I was fairly sure it would hold the magic in place for hours. And I would never be able to cast a simple countering cantrip.

  “The truth,” I said.

  “They’d all be true,” Great Aunt Stregheria said.

  She walked back around to the front and stood, her feet nearly touching the chalk. I hoped she’d smudge the diagram, just a little, but she was too experienced to do that. And even if she did ... I felt naked, even though she’d left my clothes untouched. If I somehow broke free, she would have no trouble stopping me in my tracks. I’d seen her cast spells so quickly that they were on their way before their targets even knew they were under attack.

  “You should understand, you know,” Great Aunt Stregheria said. Her voice was reflective, rather than angry. “Back when I was a young woman, your father’s age ...”

  “Back when the terrible lizards ruled the world,” I said.

  Great Aunt Stregheria jabbed a finger at me. A stringing hex flashed towards me and struck my face. I screamed in pain as fire ants ran over my skin, flickering and fading as they fell below the neckline. Great Aunt Stregheria smirked at me as I blinked away tears, the pain slowly fading into the background. I glared at her, not daring to say a word. I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised. A woman like Great Aunt Stregheria would never lower herself to actually strike a child, not when she could just hex them instead. I blinked away tears as it dawned on me, again, that I was helpless. The last year might as well never have happened as far as I was concerned.

  “I do trust you are going to be polite from now on, little girl,” Great Aunt Stregheria said, in the sort of tone that would be reserved for a toddler. “Your parents can no longer protect you.”

  I gritted my teeth. “Yes.”

  “Yes what?”

  “Yes, My Lady,” I managed, feeling humiliated. “I will be polite.”

  “Glad to hear it,” Great Aunt Stregheria said. “Little girls should be seen, but not heard.”

  She eyed me for a long moment, daring me to say something - anything - that would give her an excuse to hex me again. I kept my mouth firmly closed. I’d learnt my lesson. I could do nothing, now. I’d have to wait until I had a chance to break free and then ... and then what? I knew she knew how I’d escaped the first time. This time, she would have learnt from her crony’s mistakes.

  “As I was saying, when I was so rudely interrupted, I was a young woman once,” Great Aunt Stregheria said. Her voice was almost a hiss. “I should have been the next in line to be Matriarch. I had the power, I had the skill, I had the experience and contacts and everything else needed to make an impression in society. I would have taken the house to heights beyond your imagination!

  “But the council said no. Can you imagine it? They said no!”

  I carefully resisted the urge to point out that the family council appeared to have made the right call, even though I didn't think too highly of most of them. They might have worried about what my existence meant for the family bloodline, to the point where I suspected some of them had urged my father to have me dispatched to a distant estate and written out of the family tree, but otherwise ... they’d definitely been right to reject the thought of Matriarch Stregheria. Dad had his faults, yet he always had the well-being of the family at heart. I didn't think anyone could say that about Great Aunt Stregheria.

  She kept talking, the words hissing out in a stream of fury. She’d wanted to rant for a long time, I realised. Great Aunt Stregheria had no one to talk to, no one she could trust enough to listen while she vented without using what she said against her. Even I had been able to vent to Rose ...

  “They told me I didn't have children,” she said. “They told me I lacked perspective! They told me ...”

  She ran her hand through her hair. “They just had no vision!”

  I kept my thoughts to myself. It was hard to imagine Great Aunt Stregheria as a young woman, but she’d always been magically powerful and very well connected. The cynic in me insisted that she should have had no trouble at all finding a match, a husband who valued her connections enough to overlook her personality. She would hardly be the first grand dame who had a couple of children and palmed them off on the maids or the rest of the family while she plotted to improve her social standing. The young Stregheria must have been truly awful if no suitable young man was prepared to marry her.

  “They skipped my generation altogether, just to make sure I couldn't rise to power,” Great Aunt Stregheria told me. “Your father” - she practically spat the word - “was too young for the role. I told them he was too young! And yet, they elected him in my place!”

  “It wasn't your place,” I said. “You had to earn it.”

  I frowned. Alana might be Heir Primus, but that was no guarantee of becoming Matriarch. Besides, I didn't think Great Aunt Stregheria had ever been Heir Primus in her own right. There would have been others who had a claim to the post too. Perhaps that had been why her entire generation had been skipped. The family council had wanted to put an end to their quarrels.

  Great Aunt Stregheria swung around and threw another hex at me. It struck my chest, sending shivers up and down my spine. Ironically, the freeze spell she was using to keep me in place had cancelled out the worst of the effects. I hoped that wouldn't catch up with me when the spell finally broke. The last thing I needed was to be doubled over, gasping for breath, when I needed to be making a break for freedom.

  “It was my place, you little brat,” she snapped. “How can you possibly understand?”

  She glared at me, then resumed her rant. “I told them - hah, I told them - that your mere existence was proof they’d elected the wrong man! A powerless brat! Hah! That showed him, didn't it? And then you discovered the truth behind your talents ... and the idiot refused to make use of you! He even resisted my suggestions that you should start forging weapons for the House War! You’re his favourite, you know. Even before he discovered what you were, even before he knew you could be useful, you were his favourite.”

  The thought warmed me, even though I knew everything she told me needed to be treated with the gre
atest suspicion. Was I my father’s favourite? I wanted to believe it. And that, I knew, was dangerous. Dad had warned me, time and time again, to be wary of wanting to believe something. My feelings would put their thumb on the scales.

  “Your mere existence is an opportunity,” Great Aunt Stregheria said. “And it is one I will take advantage of! You will help Henry and I claim the kingdom, then reunite the Empire under our rule. You will be our ace in the hole.”

  I stared at her. “I won’t help you. And you can't make me.”

  Great Aunt Stregheria looked back at me, evenly. “You’re being stupid, young lady,” she said. “It doesn't suit you.”

  “I ...”

  She spoke over me. “You’re quite right on one thing. I can't use compulsions to make you do what I want. There is that, I suppose. But I can simply have you beaten, time and time again, until you can't even think of defying me. And I can have you supervised by Tallyman, once he’s been properly ... treated. He will spot any tricks you might use to try to escape. And besides--” she met my eyes “--where would you go?”

  I felt cold. Where would I go? Last time, I’d had a clear destination in mind; now, my home was occupied and ... and where could I go? Tintagel? By the time I escaped, King Rufus might have been dethroned. There would be no safety there for me. Or perhaps somewhere further away?

  “You’re mad,” I mumbled. “You can't take the entire world! I studied history. How many wars did we fight before realising that no country could gain a decisive advantage?”

  “That was when we were evenly matched,” Great Aunt Stregheria reminded me. “But with Objects of Power in our hands, the wars will be short, sharp and victorious.”

  “No,” I said.

  Great Aunt Stregheria held up her hand, as if she was going to hex me again, then stopped herself. “I’ll make you a deal,” she said. “If you work with me openly, without trying to escape or do anything that might damage our plans, Henry and I will see to it that you are treated very well. You’ll be well-fed, you’ll have a workroom to yourself ... you can even have luxuries I wouldn't give to my daughters.”

  “I feel sorry for your daughters,” I said.

  She clenched her fist. For a moment, I thought she was actually going to hit me. It had been a very low blow. Women like her were expected to have children and Great Aunt Stregheria had none. And then she took a long breath and calmed down. I was oddly impressed. There weren't many people who could banish their anger so smoothly.

  “I’ll see to it that your parents and siblings survive,” she added, coolly. “They’ll have to be ... treated ... of course, but they’ll be alive. They can even live with you. I’m sure your parents will be happier without needing to worry about running the family. I’ll even throw in your little friends too. Being my personal forger doesn't have to be bad.”

  I stared at her for a long moment. “You’d do that to your own flesh and blood?”

  Great Aunt Stregheria looked back at me. “Have there never been times when you have wanted to bring the whole system crashing down?”

  Whirlpool, I thought. I’d built the components, without putting them together. But I could ... if I wanted to. And then everything within range would come crashing down. There had been times, during the dark nights, when I’d wanted to fire it up and take the magic away for good. Are we really that different?

  I considered the thought, then dismissed it. I had supplies, tools and more instruction books than I had space on my bookshelves. I could have built a real Frogmaker ... or a Wand of Compulsion or a Crown of Sharona or ... I could have forged enough Objects of Power to do real damage. It wouldn’t have been that hard to forge an Object of Power that would turn my sisters into my adoring slaves ... or simply take the magic away. I could have ...

  But I hadn't. I hadn't done anything like that, had I?

  “We are not the same,” I said. “I won’t help you.”

  “Yes, you will,” Great Aunt Stregheria said. “I’ll be back for you when the rest of the project is completed.”

  She turned and walked to the door. I called out to her before she could open it.

  “What ... what did you do to Isabella?”

  Great Aunt Stregheria turned and smiled at me. “Isabella, too, has been cruelly deprived of her birthright by her family council,” I said. “It was easy to convince her to join me. I think she’ll take my place, when I die. By then, I will be the unquestioned ruler of the only remaining Great House. The others will be absorbed into mine.”

  “You’re mad,” I said.

  “We shall see,” Great Aunt Stregheria said. “Once we have taken over the kingdom, we'll revisit the question.”

  “You couldn’t have planned all this,” I said, desperately. “How could you have known about me? Or the sword?”

  “I didn't,” Great Aunt Stregheria admitted. “But I know the difference between your father and I. For all of his intelligence, and he is a very smart man, he’s very bad at reacting to new situations. While I, on the other hand, am quick to understand how they can be exploited to further my goals.”

  She smiled at me. “Oh, and one other thing? You can't leave this room. The door is locked.”

  I glared at her. She cackled - I swear she cackled - and walked out of the room, closing and locking the door behind her. I was alone ...

  ... And hopelessly trapped.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  For a long moment, I just stood there, tears prickling at the corner of my eyes.

  It felt like a nightmare. Great Aunt Stregheria couldn't have betrayed the entire family, could she? I’d known she had her disagreements with my father and the family council, but she was still one of us. She couldn't have betrayed us. It was the worst possible crime in the entire city. A betrayer wouldn’t just be disowned, she’d be outlawed. Every man’s hand would be turned against her. No one would ever trust her again.

  And yet ... I didn't want to believe what she’d told me, but it made sense. She wanted power and she didn't have much time left to seize it. She certainly had the ability to train Fairuza and a handful of other unknown magicians, people who didn't feel as though they fitted into Shallot. Even Isabella ... my heart wrenched as I realised just how thoroughly Great Aunt Stregheria must have twisted her. She wanted power too, power that had been denied her for no good reason. And Great Aunt Stregheria had seen opportunity and moved in for the kill.

  She must have been the one spreading rumours, I thought, grimly. And, all the while, Great Aunt Stregheria’s agents were triggering the House War.

  My mind raced. Was Great Aunt Stregheria telling the truth about the Crown Prince? It seemed unbelievable. And yet ... everyone said how loyal the Crown Prince was to the King, but I knew as well as anyone that many stories barely contained more than a gram of truth, if they contained any truth at all. If the Crown Prince had his resentments too ... Great Aunt Stregheria could have worked on that, slowly convincing him to work with her. She would have done it to me too, I was sure, if she’d been allowed to foster me. She might even have succeeded.

  Panic yammered at the back of my mind. I couldn’t see how seizing Shallot would lead to the Crown Prince displacing his father, but that didn't mean he couldn't see a way. Or ... Dad had talked about younger members of a family acting in ways their Patriarch could disown, if they failed. The Crown Prince’s real objective might be to bring Shallot firmly under his father’s control, rather than either taking the crown for himself or handing the city over to Great Aunt Stregheria. No doubt each of them was already planning to betray their partner in crime. I wouldn't have trusted Great Aunt Stregheria as far as I could throw her and I rather suspected the prince felt the same way.

  I have to get out of here, I told myself. But how?

  I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down and think. The spell Great Aunt Stregheria had used was complex - freezing everything below the neckline was harder than freezing my entire body - but that wasn't a bad thing. A complex spell wou
ld eat up power quicker than a simple spell. And yet, she’d also used Casting Chalk to lock the spell in place. It wouldn't endure indefinitely, but it would definitely endure for several hours.

  She couldn't have known what I am, I thought. She couldn't have known. My talents must have surprised her as much as they’d surprised everyone else. I had no doubt she would have kidnapped me long ago if she’d known what I could do. And yet, she knows enough to devise ways to compensate for my talents ...

  Despair threatened to overcome me. Great Aunt Stregheria hadn't tied me up with ropes or chains, but she might as well have done. She was taunting me, putting me in a trap that wouldn’t endure for long ... yet would endure long enough for her to finish securing the entire city. And then she could work on me at leisure. I told myself I wouldn't give in to her, but I knew better. A combination of compulsion spells and potions - or simple beatings - would break me eventually. I had to escape.