“Shouldn’t you be trying to find the spells necessary to wake the Sleeping God?” she urged him.
“In time,” he told her a trifle condescendingly. He didn’t like her tone. He had risen far beyond what she had ever achieved and he didn’t intend to let her order him around anymore. She may have slept her way to becoming a baroness; but he had, through skill and cunning, made his way to the throne, and would soon be taking his place among the gods.
CHAPTER 9
Jezebel thanked Devon and dismissed him. She was definitely beginning to see why she had kept him on so long. Even long-distance he had been able to see to it that her father’s estate was smoothly transferred to her, and had even hidden away many of the assets from her sister’s husband so that they missed out on the inheritance.
She smiled.
She was happy to have that mess taken care of as she was going to have to focus her full attention on the meeting this afternoon with the Treymayne council. Apparently they had some informant who was claiming that Gelendan had been planning a war, and that the informant was somehow connected to her. Though her memory was fast returning, the fact that she was unable to fathom who it might be was adding to her frustration.
But she would find out soon enough. She was to hear their accusations this afternoon and answer them.
Personally she didn’t see how they would dare question her authority, but since she was in their country now she’d have to play along, as annoying as it may be. At first glance, she hadn’t thought that they were much different from Gelendan, but as she learned more about it she was surprised at how much actually was different.
Things that in Gelendan were considered rarities and status symbols, such as the remaining spells on her manor, were commonplace here and even more surprising were put into new homes as the knowledge of how to do it was commonplace as well. People could hire talents to perform spells that they were unable to do themselves without any kind of permit from the priests or anyone else. There were some regulations - Devon had explained them to her - but for the most part magic was freely used. She was happy to note, however, that the number of high talents did not seem to be overly abundant, and the price of hiring one was still quite steep for anything other than healing.
She had also been taken off-guard when she had attended a temple ceremony last night and found that no one here had yet turned to the teachings of the Sleeping God. The Three were still universally worshiped and furthermore, their main temple was located on the bank of the Great River down which she was told they received the Word of the Three to this day. Jezebel was rather skeptical about this seeing as how they were worshiping false gods, but she had bitten her tongue on the subject as much as it had pained her to sit through the nonsensical sermon.
She got up and paced the room irritably. This afternoon couldn’t get here soon enough. She was well-prepped for it and excited to be able to disprove anything that this so-called informant thought they could catch her on. She’d already had Devon draft together some documents that could potentially discredit anyone who may speak against her. She had even paid a rather large sum to one of the maids assigned to her during her stay to put in a good word for her should the need arise. It had pained her to see the money go into the creature’s grubby little hands, and hated to think what it might be spent on, but she put that unhappy thought out of her mind. If she needed the extra support, the maid was ready to say whatever she wanted her to. For some reason they seemed to listen to the word of even the common-folk here, and she was prepared to take full advantage of that fact. At least there was some benefit to the need to dole out the money to the maid: It was the smallest bribe she’d ever had to make.
She couldn’t wait to see the look on the face of the person who would dare oppose her when she showed them what they were up against. They could never know what was coming when she made it up about them. She smiled to herself. Some of the documents seemed to prove some rather disturbing secrets about…well, whoever it is I want them to be about.
She raised her hand to her neck and scratched at the itch that had been forming there. The other day she had caught a glance of the mark on her neck in the mirror, and while she vaguely remembered being aware that she had it before, it remained one of the memories that still stubbornly refused to rise to the surface of her consciousness. Devon had told her that it was a simple symbol of her status of one of the worthy who the Sleeping God had seen fit to mark as one of his own.
With this information, she had told Devon proudly that she had attended every week’s evening service to try and impress upon him why the Sleeping God might have so marked her, but he had just given her a strange look. Perhaps he was more aware of her schedule than she realized. She’d have to be more careful as to what she said around him until she completely retained her wits. Not that it matters anyway, she reminded herself, he works for me so he’ll think what I tell him to think.
The afternoon rolled around eventually and Jezebel made her way to the council’s chambers. Those of the council that she had been introduced to nodded to her as she entered, and she graced them with a thin smile as she took her seat. Her gaze swept across the room and came to rest on a man and woman who were seated opposite her on the other side of the room.
Her eyes narrowed and she felt a familiar twinge in the back of her mind. She knew these people, but she didn’t know how. It was making her stomach hurt to look at the girl. She was quite a pretty little thing, but Jezebel curled her lip at the girl’s sad attempt at style. Obviously she wasn’t high born. The man was handsome as well, in fact, they made a rather attractive couple.
Something tugged at her memories again. She felt a strange connection with the man, but once again her emotions were without the accompanying memories to explain them. The girl made eye contact with her and Jezebel could see the sharp intake of breath and the girl’s captivating blue eyes widened in recognition. Jezebel wished she would recognize the girl as well. But at least she saw that the reaction she caused was fear. That was good.
The girl whispered something to the man and his deep brown eyes swung around to look at her as well. She continued to stare at them both, heedless of the rudeness of her action. His eyes narrowed as they saw her and his features hardened into a stern look of disapproval.
Jezebel involuntarily flinched and tore her gaze from the two of them. She looked next to her and saw that Devon was watching her with interest.
“What?” she asked him irritably.
He just shook his head, glancing in the direction of the two strangers - but not strangers - and back at her. If he knew why she knew these two, he was keeping it to himself. Perhaps that was for the best. The pain in her gut was increasing, and the more she looked at the two of them the worse it got.
One of the Triumvirate stood, and silence fell over the room.
“Thank you for joining us. We are here today to hear the accusations by Lord Gryffon and Ms. Layna against Emissary Jezebel and Gelendan. We apologize, Lady Jezebel, for the inconvenience and hope that you can provide adequate explanation for their claims against you and your country. Lord Gryffon, we will now hear your testimony.”
The man stood and cleared his throat. “I spent the last year under cover in Gelendan for the purpose of observation. During this time, I witnessed first-hand disturbing evidence that the secret society called the Order is indeed still functioning and has maneuvered to take control of the country. Furthermore, upon information and belief, it was the intention of Gelendan to attack Treymayne, a plan which most likely was only forestalled due to the fall of the barrier and consequent aftermath. There were also many disturbing reports of blood-magic returning and I personally can attest to the fact that the Lady Jezebel herself had a pack of hellhounds.”
Jezebel’s head began to pound as well, and the echoing sound of distant howling filled her ears. She lifted a hand to rub her eyes.
“We ask the Emissary of Gelendan to answer to these claims, and explain herself regarding
the intention towards war and the use of the forbidden arts. Can she do this?”
Jezebel had retained control of her senses and she showed her teeth in an insincere smile aimed at the man. “Of course. We never had any intentions of going to war with you, our only hope was to open communications between us. It would benefit both our countries to be allies once more instead of remain isolated from one another. Now that we are finally here after centuries of estrangement, I hope that we can move past these silly claims quickly and get on to more important matters of unification. As to your claim of blood-magic, I take great offense that you would accuse me of such a thing, and would never do anything of the sort.” It took a lot for her to add the next part, but she knew it was necessary to lend credit to her words. “Besides, I have no talent to speak of, look,” she held out her hands in a gesture of prostration and felt several probes run over her.
Several eyebrows rose, and many of the council looked at Gryffon skeptically. With her talent burned out, there was no way she would have been able to create a pack of hellhounds. She would have to ask Devon about that later though. If she did have hellhounds running around somewhere, she wanted to know about it.
“And what of the posters all over the place spreading propaganda that Treymayne is looking to increase its borders?”
“We can’t control everything that the people think and do,” she said easily, “they have a right to express their feelings, don’t you think?”
She didn’t think so at all, but by the uneasy look on his face and on many of the other council members’ faces around her, she knew that she had gauged their outlook well. Far too much stock was put into the commoners here. They didn’t even have a proper royal family. This thought in mind, she made the extra effort to smile over at a group of the council that she had learned were commoners themselves. She always forgot they were there.
The speaker of the Triumvirate rose again and spoke. “We will discuss this amongst ourselves and let you know what our decision is shortly.” Jezebel was surprised at the swiftness of the meeting; she hadn’t even gotten a chance to use the fake documents. “Thank you once again for taking the time to share your concerns Lord Gryffon, and you Lady Jezebel for being so patient as to answer them.”
Jezebel shot another look at the two across the way, and a feeling of intense hatred suddenly overtook her as the girl’s eyes met hers again.
She wanted these two dead.
She watched them as people filed out of the room and as she did so, she observed a rather enjoyable little exchange. While a pretty blond woman near her gave Gryffon a sympathetic look and they shared a smile, she watched as the girl noticed the exchange as well. The pained look on the girl’s face was priceless. Jezebel felt her headache ease and she took special note of the woman near her. She could turn out to be very useful indeed.
*
Katya sat motionless for a long time after Gerald and Evelyn drew their last breaths.
Finally, she pulled herself to her feet and strode over to the assassin, kicking him over with her boot. She knelt down in surprise as something caught her eye. There, in the middle of his back, was a dagger. She reached down and retrieved it from his corpse and wiped it on his tunic before examining it. It bore the insignia of the army on one side, and a symbol she didn’t recognize on the other.
Katya’s brow furrowed in confusion. Why in the blazes would someone in the army try and stop the assassin? And what did Evelyn mean that they had been waiting for this day? Had they known she would come and bring their doom? And Gerald’s last words stuck with her, ‘she deserves to know who she is too.’ Did they somehow know why she had been there? Had they had information about her past after all?
Frustration over the lack of answers and the futility of her attempts to save them burned in her mind and she felt anger building up.
She had come to realize that the collar had been dulling her emotions as well as her thoughts, so now that it was gone she had been feeling her emotions stronger than she should have from lack of practice dealing with them.
Logically she knew this, emotionally she was still just angry. Anger turned to rage and the rage boiled over until she screamed her aggravation into the sky and burned the house down around her, sending a gigantic fireball into the air.
When the smoldering ashes were starting to lose their steam, Katya’s anger finally ebbed. She had passed evidence of a large force moving just northeast of here. Perhaps it was a section of army. Tucking the package that had been entrusted to her into the pockets sewn into her clothing, she set off in search of some answers.
Several hours later, Katya was winding around the soldier’s encampment with ease. She wasn’t worried about being detected. Her silent steps brought her around a side of a barrel and she paused to observe several men gathered around the fire some twenty feet away. She crouched and listened.
“Half rations again,” a husky old man was grumbling, hunched over a mug in front of the fire.
“Aye, but at least we’re still on full ale rations,” said another much more heartily though slightly slurred, raising his own mug.
“But why? I heard that the grain stores were spared in the fire and most of the farmers weren’t hit as hard as the capital was. So why aren’t they feeding us?”
“Ah quit yer whinin’,” rebuked a third, walking up from behind the older man. “A little less food would do you good. You don’t want yer belly gettin’ in the way of yer sword now do ya?”
The old man just grunted.
Then suddenly and simultaneously, the two men at the fire stood, and the third stopped his motion.
Katya tensed, wondering if it was possible that they had discovered her.
But a moment later they resumed their motion - collectively - as they made their way towards the tents. In unison, they entered several of the tents there and were joined by other soldiers, as if all drawn by the silent call. Within minutes, the camp had emptied of the milling about of bored men and almost too quickly the sounds of snoring could be heard.
Moments later, several men emerged from the end tents and marched to the sentry posts, relieving those on watch who immediately made their way to their own tents.
A chill ran down Katya’s back. This wasn’t normal behavior. She watched the last man closely and felt a horrified pang as his shirt fell back from his wrist as he opened the tent flap.
He had a bracer around his wrist which looked all too familiar to Katya. It was a smaller version of her collar. She hesitantly probed the man with her talent, and her fears were confirmed. She sent tendrils out to touch the other men, and found the same foul stench on all of them. She felt Marak shiver on her arm, and she mirrored his motion.
An army of slaves then. Just what is their fine new King up to? She contemplated attempting to break the spells on the soldiers, but there were simply too many of them. And besides, it’s not my problem. She had to find this Layna girl, she was the last link to Gerald and Evelyn and her only hope of finding out why they were in her memory. She knew from the name and the clue that she had been in the service of one of the councilors that it was the maid that Jezebel had been having problems with and had been searching for before her mysterious absence.
Unfortunately, she was currently a fugitive but Katya decided that since she was traveling with Gryffon who had been found to be a spy it was likely that the two of them were on their way to, if not already in, Treymayne.
She rose out of her squatting position, and slunk through the now-empty camp, keeping a close eye on the sentries as she passed. They made no motion or noise as she passed, and she slipped unnoticed into the woods.
Once out of range, she broke into a jog, making as much headway as was possible during the night. She had hoped to hear rumors about the assassination that had been thwarted, perhaps someone bragging about the deed, but if it had been someone from this camp, they weren’t saying. And since they were all controlled by their bracers…someone higher up must have told them to do
it anyway. It was unlikely she was going to find anything more so she may as well set out to find Layna.
The forests still held remnants of recent dangers, Katya had seen signs of several bloodbeasts running free. It appeared that they had been rounded up, however, since the regular beasts seemed to have resumed their prowling.
The army had corrals of the bloodbeasts, and their mage-keepers were the only ones in the camp that Katya felt she needed to worry about.
The fact that none of the soldiers seemed the least bit concerned about their camp-mates was disturbing, but perhaps this was another aspect of their bracers. Katya knew all too well how it could influence one’s thinking.
When dawn neared, Katya slowed her pace and searched for a place to settle in for daylight. In short order, she was nestled up in a tree, and she fingered the package that Gerald had entrusted her with. She felt a strange bond to the girl she was to deliver it to; both of them apparently had a past they didn’t know about. She also couldn’t shake the guilt that she felt over her parent’s deaths and felt that she owed it to her, no matter what Evelyn had said.
They had seemed like such genuinely nice people; something that there was all too few of in the world – at least in Katya’s experience. She couldn’t help but compare her own corrupted existence to theirs, and she wondered if she could really ever overcome the wrongs of her past. More than ever, she wanted to find out what she had been like before she had become nothing but a tool of others. She held onto the frail hope that her true self was someone she could be proud of. But right now, she didn’t know who that was.
She put the troubling thoughts out of her mind and set about placing her wards before allowing her wearied body its rest.
Those Who Fear the Darkness (BloodRunes: Book 2) Page 14