by Radu Aldea
“Don’t you think we should clean this up,” Michael pointed to the bodies around them.
“You can do that?” Amelia asked very surprised.
“Yes!”
“How long would that take?” Kara was considering the benefits of getting rid of the evidence. It would be better if no one else knew what happened here.
“It depends on how thorough do you want me to be!”
“Thorough enough no one figures out what happened here.”
“I can deal with the bodies, but traces would still remain if someone knows what to look for. It would take about fifteen minutes. There are a lot of bodies.”
“Is there a faster way?”
“There is but it would tell exactly what happened if someone came looking. And people might come to find out what happened.”
“I will think about it while you go get your backpack.”
Kara said it in a way that made him think she didn’t believe he was going in the woods to get his backpack. She was right. He was going to talk to Serratus. Kara must be really well trained if she managed to spot a lie without reading his mind and after what she’d been through. Somehow he didn’t think there could be any other way with a senator like Kara.
“Maybe I could think of something to solve our problem here.”
He ran into the forest. It didn’t take him long and he found Serratus waiting for him.
“It seems she didn’t take control of you.” Serratus showed his displeasure of the fact Michael revealed himself to a senator. “We should’ve left after we saved them. You didn’t have to go and talk to her.”
“She’s not stupid! She knew a wizard was close by. I revealed myself so she wouldn’t think two wizards are around here.”
“She would’ve learned that if she had taken control of you.”
“She didn’t! She just thanked me. The only moment she was annoyed with me was when she thought I suggested she had done something to cause this.”
“And she didn’t?”
“No! Someone thought this was a good moment to get rid of her.”
“She seemed to care about her human slaves.”
“They might not like hearing you call them that.” Michael chuckled. “She lost a girl and she was really upset about that. I think the humans care about her, too.”
“Then we are dealing with a very peculiar senator. Good for her! We should get out of here before she decides she wants to hunt us.”
“I don’t think she would do that. Anyway, I decided to stay with her a little longer.”
“Michael, she’s a senator! In the end, she will do what she’s been trained to do since she was little. I know she must be pretty, but you can’t think of her as of a common woman.”
“She’s pretty, but that has nothing to do with this. I think that if I won’t go with her something bad will happen.”
“Something bad for the senators? That wouldn’t exactly be unwelcomed!”
“Something bad for everyone! We can’t abandon a senator as powerful as her who’s sympathetic to the humans and doesn’t want to kill us on sight.”
“If this is how you feel perhaps we should split up and meet later. Be careful!”
“I’ll be fine! You go do what you have to do and I will help her. If she doesn’t need me when she gets home I will catch up with you. If she needs me, we’ll meet in a few weeks.”
“You know how to find me and if she takes over you so will she.”
“Yes, but she won’t be able to control me for long. So if I’m wrong and I’m in trouble she will be there and I won’t. I have a favor to ask. Will you clean up this mess after we leave?”
Michael didn’t wait for an answer and ran out of the forest. Kara was waiting for him and meantime she managed to gather some horses for them.
“I assume you can ride?” Kara asked when he was close enough. Michael didn’t even bother to answer her. He just jumped on a horse.
“I think I figured a way to get rid of the bodies without waiting.”
“Good! That means we can leave now! I see you still don’t have a backpack.”
“I couldn’t find it. I was so sure I knew where I left it.”
Amelia and Cecilia were on their horses as well. Michael assumed they could ride too. Much to his surprise, he saw the men Kara had captured were preparing for the journey.
“What are you going to do with them?” Michael asked Kara.
“I’m not sure, yet! I promised him that I will have him kill everyone he cares about, but I will wait until home to decide. There may be a better use for them.”
She was a senator, no doubt about it. Ruthless, when she needed to be, and absolutely didn’t tolerate any challenge. Michael couldn’t really blame her; these men had been stupid enough to attack a senator.
“I suggest you start doing what you do so we can get out of here.”
Michael created a ball of fire and sent it to the nearest body. It vaporized it and nothing remained, not even a small part of a bone. Nothing suggested there had been a human being. From the first body the ball of fire jumped to the next one.
“Let’s go!” Michael spoke to all of them and he moved his horse in the direction the soldiers came from. He was pretty sure her house was that way.
Michael saw Kara watching as the ball of fire vaporized another body while his back was turned. Then she eyed him suspiciously. He couldn’t help but swear in his mind. This senator definitely knew about wizards and what they could do a lot more than she should. Michael was willing to let the ball of fire jump from body to body until the battlefield was out of sight. He didn’t need to look to know where to send the fire, he could sense the bodies. What he wanted to do is to make Kara and the others believe the ball of fire was jumping on its own. Kara didn’t seem to be fooled. He thought that she was going to wait him out – that didn’t bother him much, as long as they were close the fire would still move – or let the men she controlled wait here. That would not have been very good news. He thought she was going to say something, instead she kicked her horse and within seconds it was galloping over the field.
He let his horse run and tried to catch up. It wasn’t that easy to accomplish. Kara was a very good rider, which wasn’t much of a surprise, but also managed to choose the best horse available, or at least one of the best. Michael didn’t think it was luck, she knew horses. Luckily, he had a good horse as well, and closed the gap when she slowed down a little. He looked behind and saw the rest of the party trailing behind.
“I assume you weren’t taught how to bake and weave.” Michael spoke when he reached her side.
“No! Those skills elude me. They have since I was little. I have different talents and my father and tutors tried to build on them.”
“So, who would gain from your death?”
His directness seemed to surprise her, because Kara didn’t answer for some time. Or maybe she was just thinking of an answer.
“In the short-term, some of my family’s clients would gain, or maybe Julia. But whatever little they might gain, in the long-term their position would be weaker. They all know this. Senators from Essland and Cuttland would profit. Lucian is ambitious and he wants more power, but there aren’t enough senators in Essland for his plans. Still, he is now one of the five and with me dead he would be one of the four,” Kara said cryptically.
“Couldn’t this Lucian enlist help of senators from other provinces?”
“I guess! Although it’s not that easy. The divide among senators runs along the borders of the provinces. It is even deeper, sometimes. There are things we have in common and things that separate us. No, he would not easily gain support from senators of other provinces.”
“You mentioned the senators from Cuttland.”
“I did! That’s a different story! Cuttland is the largest province, so it’s no surprise that the largest number of senators lives there. Their problem is they lack leadership. That’s why we managed to block some of their more extravagant
initiatives. The last five years, since Julia and I have become old enough, the voice of the senators from Suttland carries a lot more weight. With the emperor dead and me dead there would be an opportunity for them to be extravagant again.”
“This Julia is as powerful as you are?”
“She thinks she is more powerful than me.”
“Is she right?”
“I can’t say! And no matter what she claims, she can’t either. She’s also my friend.”
“What would she gain?”
“Suttland if my clients don’t believe she’s involved in what happened to me.”
“That’s a lot to gain and it would make a very good motive.”
“It is, if she thought she could hold it and she wasn’t my friend. I believe Lucian could be involved! I won’t believe Julia is.”
“What did you mean when you said if she could hold it?”
“I think we should hold the rest of the lesson on senators for later. We are getting close to my house.”
That was obvious because Kara had slowed her horse to a trot at first and then to a walk. It had been about half an hour since they left the lake. She was cautious and worried about what she might find home. The rest of the party came behind them.
He saw what Kara called home in the distance. It was a fortress situated on top of a steep hill with high walls around it. There was a clear view of the land around it. It was easily defended and almost impossible to conquer.
“It was built to withstand attacks from senators or wizards.”
“How many people are inside?”
“There are a hundred soldiers and twenty servants, all under my father’s control.”
“How come you don’t have any under your control?”
“I do have control of Cecilia and Amelia, who are my servants, and Aleyna, who is my friend. Was my friend! I take control of my guards when I leave the villa, but I don’t like it and I don’t need it.”
“And you are not worried another senator would attack you, being so poorly guarded.”
“I wasn’t! And may I remind you the men who attacked me weren’t under the control of a senator. Considering today’s events perhaps I should’ve taken more guards with me and had the soldiers at the villa under my control.”
Michael didn’t say that he found it odd Kara chose to go out with so little protection. The senators he knew were all accompanied by a lot of guards. It was unlikely they were worried about a human attack. More likely they didn’t trust other senators. He knew the Order had a hierarchy. He also knew some of them were more powerful than others. But what difference did it make if you controlled three hundred people and not two hundred and fifty? Although, from what he had seen earlier, Kara had managed to control about three hundred and fifty people. He never heard of a senator controlling more than three hundred. Kara crushed all the limitations he thought they had. Julia was obviously matching Kara’s power. And from the worried tone in Kara’s servant voice Michael suspected Lucian was as powerful as the two women. He didn’t forget Kara’s enigmatic comment about Lucian being one of the five. If Kara died, there would be four, so obviously she was one of the five too. He was willing to bet Julia was also a member of that club. Still, that difference in power should not have counted that much. But it did. It made Kara confident enough to walk out of the house with very little protection. And Kara was right. The men who attacked her were not under the control of a senator, although she suspected a senator was involved. Why would a senator do that? It would be easier to send a hundred soldiers to deal with her. Unless they couldn’t deal with her or a senator wasn’t involved.
“I will take over the guards of the villa from now on,” Kara spoke mostly to herself.
“Aleyna always thought you should,” Amelia said. “She argued with your father more than once. She was concerned about Julia.”
“Aleyna was not concerned about Julia. She didn’t like Julia! She argued about it with me as well, not only with my father. Perhaps I should’ve listened to her.”
“You’re worried about what you might find?” Michael asked wondering why it would matter who controlled the guards.
“I am a little, although I know my home can’t be taken easily. It would take more than a thousand soldiers.”
“Why would it make a difference who controlled the guards?”
“Didn’t we agree to leave the lessons about senators for later?”
They didn’t agree, she just made the choice not to answer any more questions. The senators had their secrets, just as the wizards did, and were even less likely to reveal them. Kara looked around carefully. She was getting more cautious the closer they got to the villa.
“There is no trap. There’s nobody around,” he told her.
Finally, they got close enough to see the first sign something was wrong. The gates were open. That moment, Michael saw Kara’s face turn white and the two servants gasped. That was all he needed. He opened his senses to see what was waiting for them inside. It was worse than he thought. Death was waiting for them and there was nobody alive in the villa.
“There is nobody alive inside the walls,” he whispered to Kara.
Her face turned ashen. It was what she most feared. On a subconscious level she must’ve known that if they dared come after her they wouldn’t leave her father alone. They wanted to destroy her house. But how could they have taken the villa?
When they neared the gate, they saw the first bodies. It was those of the guards. Michael could tell they had been dead for hours, long before the attack on Kara, and their wounds seemed to be self-inflicted. Kara must’ve come to the same conclusion because she frowned. This was a senator’s doing.
“They knew you weren’t here, Lady Kara, or they waited until you left,” spoke Amelia.
“Yes, it would seem so! There are no signs of battle.”
The scene repeated itself everywhere they went, on the corridors, the courtyard or the rooms. The bodies were invariably those of the servants or the guards of the villa. The walls kept the attackers from coming inside but it also made it difficult to escape if they were already there. Whoever did this had been invited inside.
Finally, they arrived in the hall where the family entertained their guests. There they found Kara’s father lying in a pool of blood. Three cups of wine were on a table. The senator had guests. Michael was curious to see what Kara would do. She kneeled near her father and tears rolled over her cheeks. Her father had his throat slit but Michael didn’t think this was the whole story. In fact, he was almost sure it had been done after he had died. There was no spray of blood around him. There would’ve been had he been alive. Kara came to the same conclusion because she started looking around. Then her sight stopped on her father’s empty cup of wine. She was better than Michael thought, even in this situation. She smelled the cup. He knew Kara was looking for signs of poison and was not sure she could find them.
“There are signs of poison in his cup and none in the other two.”
She nodded. It was exactly what she expected.
“Do you know who your father would have allowed inside?” Michael asked her.
“Any of our clients, I guess. Almost any senator although is customary to announce a visit. But if they did not seem threatening he would’ve let him in.”
“So he would’ve let them in if they didn’t have too many soldiers with them?”
“That’s right!”
“So he had two senatorial guests. Is it safe to assume humans would not have been invited to sit down and drink wine?”
“Some senators have human consorts, but there are not that many of them. It’s safe to assume there were two senators here.”
“Would he have invited Lucian inside?”
“Not a chance,” Amelia answered for Kara.
“And Julia?”
“Yes, he would’ve invited Julia in,” Kara answered grudgingly.
Michael picked up a strand of blond hair from one of the chairs. It was of m
edium length and quite unusual for the south.
“Could this belong to one of the servants?” Michael asked Kara.
“No! I don’t have any blond female servants.”
“How about your clients?”
“There are two blond senatorial women.”
“Julia has blond hair,” Cecilia said.
“It’s not her hair, hers is shorter,” Kara replied.
“Perhaps she has grown it. When was the last time you saw her?” Michael asked.
Kara didn’t reply which led Michael to believe this Julia indeed had had enough time to grow her hair. Michael wished he knew more about senatorial politics and who Julia was. But senators, just like wizards, were secretive and didn’t let the outside world learn much about them. Michael, like anybody else, knew there was a hierarchy but didn’t know who was on top of it. He deduced that Kara, Julia or Lucian must’ve been there.
“Julia didn’t do this! She wouldn’t have needed the poison,” Kara finally said.
“She would’ve needed it if she was to convince your clients she had nothing to do with this, Lady Kara,” Amelia replied.
“There are enough suspects and truth is lots of people could’ve done this so we shouldn’t focus on only one person,” Michael spoke. “However that is not what concerns me…”
“Nor me! What concerns me is how a thousand soldiers from Essland managed to get here without someone noticing them. They should’ve been spotted by someone. The second thing that worries me is how did they know I was not home? Because I think they needed me to be away. Does anyone have an answer for this?”
“If there isn’t a huge conspiracy against you, there is only one explanation. But I think I know who could answer at least one of your questions,” Michael said and looked at the men Kara had captured.
Michael saw how Kara’s face suddenly turned blank. He was sure she was rummaging through their minds. Hearing their thoughts was one thing, finding one piece of information in their memories was something completely different and took some time and effort. Michael knew that about senators, but he was again surprised by Kara.