Malik systematically interrogated everyone, starting with the most recent guests to the royal palace, then progressing to the servants. Each person was interrogated individually and under the influence of a truth orb. Screams of pain could be heard from those who tried to lie.
There had to be a flaw in Malik’s barrier. He needed to find it before his time of questioning came. And, that was soon.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Hollace slammed into his bedroom, his face contorted with fury at the situation.
“No luck, still, Father?” asked Oringo, Hollace’s one and only son.
Hollace looked up at his son and his anger switched targets. He hated his son’s beauty. Oringo took after his mother in that respect. He was tall and lanky. No amount of training put any muscle on his frame; however, Oringo wasn’t a weak man. He only looked it.
His face further pronounced this weakness. No one would fear a man who looked pretty enough to shame most women. Oringo’s red locks were cut above his shoulders to frame his heart-shaped face. His jewel-green eyes were always wide and innocent looking, a trait that endeared every woman in the palace to him.
That was the main reason Hollace wanted the boy married. He wanted an heir for the throne before Oringo started making bastards. At the rate Oringo had worked his way through the female servants of the palace and the noblewomen who visited the court, Hollace wondered if he wasn’t already too late.
In answer to Oringo’s question, Hollace ground out, “It has been four days. No one knows where the girl is from. I have contacted the Mage Guild. It took them this long to tell me they are missing no students.”
Contacting the Mage Guild and waiting so long for their answer had only added to Hollace’s bad mood. The school took up a large amount of land that could be put to better use. He’d have it demolished tomorrow if that wouldn’t constitute a breach of Derex’s stipulations to have a Kontarian representative—namely the Mage Guild master—at every birth and wedding. Since neither he nor any of his predecessors wanted a mage in the palace, a school was built.
Tacita asked, “Will the Mage Guild contact other mage guilds of the surrounding kingdoms?”
“Yes, wife, they will. Are you questioning my intelligence by asking such a profoundly stupid question?”
“No, my husband. I was merely curious—”
“Silence, woman,” Hollace growled. He gave a nod when Tacita closed her mouth and bowed her head. His eyes went to his son. “Have you found a wife yet?”
Oringo looked back at the pictures on the desk in front of Tacita. He scanned them with a look of indifference. “Does it really matter who I choose, Father? They are all the same.” He looked back at his father. “Why don’t you simply pick one for me? It’s not as though any of these women will keep my attention for very long. No woman has before.”
“She’ll keep your attention long enough to beget Kakra’s heir, boy,” Hollace snapped.
“Of course, of course, Father,” Oringo soothed in a bored tone. “It’s a shame Chandra wasn’t born male. She seems a better choice for the throne than me.”
Hollace stalked over to his son. The back of his hand cracked across the boy’s cheek. “Bite your tongue, boy. No woman shall sit Kakra’s throne.”
“I said if Chandra was a male, Father,” repeated Oringo.
“Get out. Go back to whatever it was you were doing…or whomever,” Hollace dismissed. Disappointment colored his words. His son had a point. Chandra was everything Hollace could ever want for Kakra’s throne—responsible, strong, and able to fight close to a first blade’s level. But she was a woman. Hollace was stuck with Oringo, the son who would rather be in a woman’s bed than on the throne.
Hollace’s attention went back to Tacita. She had started to sift through the pictures of potential brides.
She said, “Lady Sovenne is quite beautiful, and from a Kakran noble family. She even trained as a warrior. I do believe she graduated as a fifth blade, my husband.” She picked up Sovenne’s picture to show Hollace. “And she has red hair.”
“Do not think I have not noticed how much time you spend with Chandra of late, wife.”
Tacita lowered the picture with a confused look on her face. “I do not understand, my husband, what you mean. Chandra is still our daughter and I like spending time with our new grandson, Devon.”
Hollace gave his wife a sly smile. He taunted, “You forget to mention Adele, wife. You forget to mention how you spend almost every waking moment near her to feel her magicks instead of standing behind my throne where you belong.”
“I do not—”
He hauled her up from her chair and grabbed the chain around her waist to give it a good yank. He nodded when it didn’t give. “If I ever catch you not wearing this, Tacita, you will rue the day.”
“I would never take it off, my husband. You know this.”
“You envy her, don’t you, woman? You want the freedom I have granted her—her and Caradoc. The only mages within this palace without mage metal adornments.” He fingered the chain again before shoving Tacita away from him. “Take off that chain and it will be the last thing you ever do.”
He left the room then. He didn’t want to sleep there tonight. A palace maiden had caught his attention earlier that day. He only hoped he had seen the girl before his son had. Having a woman after his son did annoy him.
* * *
Adele bounced Devon on her knee and smiled as he cooed at her. The babe had the red hair his mother envied so much. Every other member of the Kakran royal line had red hair. It was a trademark of sorts. Chandra believed if she had it, her father wouldn’t treat her so coldly. Adele thought otherwise but kept her opinion on the matter to herself.
Her days with Chandra had shown the woman didn’t want a companion so much as someone to listen to her and agree without comment. Her maid did nothing but frown disapprovingly at Chandra’s constant complaints about her situation in life. The woman thought Chandra should be thankful Hollace allowed her to stay in the palace after her marriage and subsequent demotion.
Adele listened to Chandra rant while she cared for Devon. It was an easy enough task. Chandra only wished an affirmative from Adele on the odd occasion, but mostly it was Adele’s lack of censure she liked best. And Devon was happy with anything Adele did. He seemed starved for attention.
Across the room, Chandra smiled at them in the mirror. It confused Chandra that she found herself fighting off Caradoc’s presence whenever he came to whisk Adele away to conquer the mystery of her amnesia.
Everyday after lunch, Caradoc took Adele back to his cottage in the woods outside the palace. There he tried spell after spell to find some way to break through Adele’s amnesia. They always returned in failure. Despite Caradoc’s promises of a speedy resolution, Hollace’s foul mood at the lack of progress ruined dinner after dinner.
So far as Chandra was concerned, he could keep failing. Despite her earlier misgivings, Adele turned out to be the perfect companion. She also filled the role of nurse for Devon quite nicely.
Adele made faces at the baby to get him to smile. It worked. He laughed and flailed his arms with each new face. The baby’s laugh turned to a grunt and his smiling face to a frown. Then he started to whimper.
Adele stood quickly. She cooed, “Oh, I know that face, young man. No crying, now, I’m moving as fast as I can.”
Chandra watched Adele in the mirror with disgusted disinterest. She was glad Adele was there or she would have had to listen to the boy cry until the nurse or a maid came to change him.
She couldn’t understand how Adele could be so nonchalant about the entire affair. Adele never made faces or complained. She changed the diaper and that was the end of it. Even Chandra’s maid would make a comment about the smell.
She rolled her eyes and went back to preening herself. “I swear all he does is eat, sleep and crap…excuse my language, Mistress Adele.”
Adele laughed at that as she pinned the new diaper in place
. She looked up from the baby to Chandra and said, “Your tone reminded me of my mother. She said the same thing about my brothers and me.”
Chandra turned from the vanity to face Adele fully. She asked with wonder, “You have brothers?”
“Yes, two,” Adele answered. She picked up the baby to deposit him in his crib. It was his bedtime. “Their names are Castor and Pollux.”
“Strange names.”
Adele didn’t take offense. She laid Devon down and tucked the blanket around him. He kicked it off. She tucked it in around him again. He kicked it off and laughed. He thought this was a game. To Chandra, she said, “You can blame my mother. She loves Greek mythology and named them after the twins in the Gemini story.”
“The what?” Chandra asked in complete confusion. “What is a Greek?”
Adele laughed again. “Oh, they…” her words trailed off as she fell into a faint.
Chandra jumped up and rushed to her side. “Adele? Adele,” she yelled, tapping the woman’s cheek. Adele gave a loud moan of pain, her face twisting in agony. Chandra went and pulled her personal alarm.
Something was very wrong with Adele.
“Ah, there she is,” Caradoc said in a thankful voice.
Adele blinked open her eyes and stared at the people surrounding her: Caradoc, Chandra, Tacita, three physicians and Hollace.
“What’s going on?” she whispered.
Hollace snapped, “That’s what we’d like to know.” He glared at Tacita when she placed a hand on his arm. She smiled at him in response.
Chandra came forward hesitantly. “You fainted, Mistress Adele. When I tried to wake you, you looked to be in immense pain. Do you remember?”
Adele shook her head in complete confusion. She didn’t remember fainting. Though she doubted people would remember fainting; it was probably like trying to remember falling asleep. “I remember changing the baby and then waking up here.”
“Yes. I made…a comment that you said reminded you of your mother,” Chandra supplied in an urging tone.
“I said something about my mother?”
Caradoc cut in to the conversation to ask, “You don’t remember?”
“No. What did I say, Lady Chandra?”
“You said my comment resembled something your mother said about you and your brothers, Castor and Pollux.”
Tacita said, “Those are strange names.”
“I said the same. Adele told me her mother named them for a story in Greek mythology. When I asked what a Greek is, she fainted.” Chandra looked at Adele. “Do you remember what you planned to say?”
Again, Adele shook her head. Her voice showed her confusion as she said, “I have no idea what a Greek is. Or that I had…have brothers. It’s nice to know. I wonder if I have sisters, as well.”
Hollace barked, “You mean to say you don’t remember the very words you said to Lady Chandra last night?”
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I can’t recall any of it. As I said, I remember changing the baby and then waking up here,” Adele said defensively.
Chandra whispered, “You looked to be in so much pain, Adele. I was so scared.”
Caradoc asked, “Do you still have any pain?”
“I have a slight headache,” Adele said. She put her hand to her head.
Caradoc nodded. “It only makes sense; you missed several meals. Your headache is probably from hunger.”
“What time is it?”
“Twenty minutes to dinner,” Hollace said in an exasperated tone. “You have no memory of what you said to my daughter or of these supposed brothers?”
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty, but no,” Adele answered. “I wish I did.”
“I, as well. If you remembered, you could tell us who your family is and be gone from here,” he snapped. After glaring at her for a few breaths, he quit the room. Tacita followed him.
Caradoc excused himself to Chandra and Adele and followed the royal couple.
Chandra sat on Adele’s bedside and held her hand. “I am so happy you are awake. We were so worried.”
“I can imagine. Dinner had just ended when I was with you and now it’s almost dinner again,” Adele said in amazement. What had happened to her? Her concern for herself vanished with a thought.
She sat up in the bed with a scared look. “I didn’t hurt the baby when I fell, did I?”
“No, no,” Chandra said quickly. She patted Adele’s hands. “He’s fine. He started crying when you fell but you didn’t fall on him. I’m thankful you weren’t carrying him when you fainted.”
Adele nodded at that and settled back on the bed. She would have to be more careful from now on. Whatever had made her faint could happen again.
Hollace barked, “Report.”
Caradoc stared at the orb in his hand in confusion. “It makes no sense, Your Majesty. We all saw her pain when she arrived at the infirmary. Something that strong should have left a mark on her of some kind, but there is nothing, absolutely nothing.”
Hollace stopped walking and glared at Caradoc. “How can there be nothing?” he roared.
“The erasure spell seems to have slipped with her glimmer of memory. That slip caused her to faint. During her slumber, the spell corrected itself and erased the memory of the slip so it wouldn’t happen again. Or that is my theory, in any case,” he explained.
“Theory? That’s all you have. What good is a theory?” Hollace gritted out. He started walking down the corridor again.
Caradoc followed. “I don’t know what else to say, King Hollace. I have never seen a spell like this one. It changes and evolves to suit Adele’s condition. Spells just don’t do that unless the caster is physically changing the spell.”
Tacita asked, “Does that mean the caster of the spell is nearby, perhaps even spying on Adele somehow?”
Hollace snorted. “Not likely.”
“But, husband—”
“No mage would be in my palace without me knowing it,” Hollace said, cutting off her argument. He thought on what Caradoc had told him, though. The spell had changed because she started to remember. The caster had to be close, just not in his palace. “Caster…caster…” he mumbled to himself.
“Your Majesty?” Caradoc asked.
Hollace stopped again. He commanded, “Send out a new notice about Adele. Add in that she has brothers by the names of Castor and Pollux. Mayhap this will speed up the search for her true family and she can get out of my presence once and for all.”
Caradoc bowed. “I will see it done immediately.” He turned and almost ran down the hallway in the opposite direction.
“First, messengers sent to every mage guild, and now this,” a soldier grumbled. He shifted his arms to relieve the burden of the heavy paper.
His partner demanded, “Shut up before someone reports your complaints to King Hollace. You will get us both in trouble.” He stopped near his horse and opened the saddle bag to unload the papers.
A strong wind rushed by and ripped several of the flyers out of the man’s hands. He cursed and started running after the pages.
His companion yelled, “Leave them. The wind can spread the word faster than we can.”
The man cursed and returned to his horse. He looked one last time at the papers. A frown marred his features. The only thing the wind affected was the flyers. The leaves of the trees nearby didn’t stir.
“Come on!”
“Right behind you,” the man said. He spurred his mount in the opposite direction the wind had taken.
Chancellor Sabri watched as the guards carried away a man in too much pain to walk on his own. Malik’s latest victim of interrogation. Hundreds had been questioned already, and there were still no leads as to the traitor or Adrienne’s whereabouts.
“There has to be a better way,” Sabri said. The other chancellors edged away from him. He sneered at them for being cowards. He looked up at Malik on the throne dais and said again, “There must be a faster way to find Queen Adrienne, Majesty.”
; Malik rasped, “What would you suggest, Chancellor?”
“Ask for the other kingdoms’ aid. Queen Adrienne has not left the planet. She is still on Bron. Someone in one of the kingdoms must have caught sight of her.”
The suggestion made Malik laugh. Feyr roared. Everyone in the throne room took a collective step back.
Malik rose from his throne and descended so he could stand in front of Sabri. “If I were to ask for aid from the other kingdoms, Hollace would find out Adrienne is missing. He would divert all of his resources to find her before me. Once he found her, Hollace would kill Adrienne without hesitation.”
“This is true, Majesty. I hadn’t thought of—”
“I would be forced to level all of Kakra and kill every man, woman and child within its borders, starting with Hollace. Such an action would upset Kontar and I would have to destroy them next before they decided to retaliate.” He stepped into Sabri and his tone dropped to below freezing as he finished, “The remaining eleven kingdoms would take exception at the destruction of both Kakra and Kontar and band together to stop me from destroying other kingdoms. That would mark the beginning of a world war.
“You can believe, Chancellor Sabri, that I would not be killed until I had seen most of this world laid to waste. That is how strong my grief would be should Adrienne die before I can find her. And that is why no other kingdom will be apprised of her kidnapping. Do you understand me, Chancellor?”
“Clearly, King Malik,” Sabri whispered. He didn’t back down but did notice that he and Malik were alone, since everyone else in the throne room had moved to stand along the walls.
“Good.” Malik returned to his throne. He barked, “Bring forward the next.”
The other chancellors rejoined Sabri. “Not even when his parents were killed did he act like this,” Riler whispered.
Valah said, “We must remain vigilant for any signs of Queen Adrienne’s presence. The sooner she is found the better it will be for all of us.”
Adrienne Page 25