by Radu Aldea
“If senators took over him they should do a better job controlling him. Take Bryony back to the palace. I will deal with them,” Alexandra said and turned around to look for the men before Yvonne could order her not to. The commander of the guards did not try to stop her.
She found them in the dark alley. They were very bad at following or hiding and made it easy. There was no way they could elude her, but they didn’t know that. She would teach them tonight why she was just as dangerous as a senator. The alley was narrow so that worked in her favor. There weren’t any witnesses. It didn’t matter to her at all.
“You must be very, very stupid, or very, very crazy,” Alexandra spoke.
There wasn’t that much light but she could see their panic. Did they really think they would not get caught? The man from the tavern grinned. Alexandra reconsidered. He was so very, very stupid and so very, very crazy. His friends were a little more sober.
“We don’t want trouble. Our friend is drunk. He didn’t know what he was doing.”
“Then why were you following us?”
“There must be some mistake. We were not following you.”
“Do you know who I am, bitch? I would teach you how to show proper respect to a man.” He spoke before his friends could stop him and she had all the proof she needed. She was certain he deserved to die and was guilty of many things. So were his friends. They didn’t shy away from violence and brutality. They just didn’t want to confront her. Too bad! Lighting flashed from her hands and they were dead. It was probably a quicker death than they deserved. She burned the bodies until only their ashes remained. She hoped the rain or the wind would carry away the ashes.
Chapter sixteen
Julia gazed over the field that still showed the scars of the battle. It felt like the field was proud of them. She knew she was being ridiculous. The grass would grow again and the earth would swallow the burnt remains of armor. It just needed more time. In a year this place would look pristine, like nothing ever happened.
“So is she dead or not?” Julia’s question was directed at five of the persons present there. A lot more people were just outside hearing range. They were the guards and every senator present, except Julia, brought a lot with them. There were nine senators on the field, four from Western Suttland and five from Eastern Suttland. Between them, they had more than one thousand five hundred soldiers. Her people had the advantage, although the numbers they brought to the picnic were pretty even. Her presence changed everything and every senator there knew it. She had to give it to Marcia. The western senator had guts meeting her on these terms. She must want something badly. “I haven’t seen a body yet.”
“The truth is there is no body and we are not sure she is dead,” Marcia answered.
“She’s dead!” That was Aleyna. The human was confident, although Julia doubted she knew more than Marcia. Julia knew the human didn’t like her and she thought the feeling was mutual. It wasn’t. She liked Kara’s human just fine and even admitted Aleyna should be given the status of consort. She was curious about where Aleyna’s confidence came from, though.
“Well, she seems certain, why aren’t the rest of you?”
“Because Aleyna doesn’t believe Kara would intentionally break their connection,” Sarah Levilla answered this time. “And since nobody else can break it, the only other explanation is Kara died. Otherwise, we are fairly certain she is alive. We just don’t know where she is.”
“We were hoping she was with you,” Marcia added.
“She is not.” At least she got some answers. The westerners were so paranoid they didn’t even let humans under their control know anything. She scrutinized the four senators. Marcia Antonia and Reyna Levilla were the leaders of the family. Their children, who were more powerful than the mothers, completed the foursome. Sarah Levilla was the true unknown. She had dealt more than once with the older women and mostly ignored Christian, because he was younger than her. He was all grown up now and not someone she should overlook. Sarah was the only one she hadn’t met before. Kara’s relationship with her cousin and aunt was almost nonexistent so when Julia visited her friend she hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know the young senator. Sarah was a year older than Christian and just as powerful. If not for Kara, the family would’ve imploded under its own weight, torn apart by the power of its senators. Marcia and Reyna seemed to get along for now, but that couldn’t last forever.
“Does anyone have any idea where she could be?” Adrian asked the question she wanted to. That’s why she loved her consort. He was smart as well as very attractive.
“We don’t know. You and Aleyna know her best,” Sarah said.
“Well, why don’t you tell me what happened and maybe I’ll think of something.”
So Marcia told her. How Aleyna made her way to them, what she knew, how they found no bodies at the lake and a lot of them at the villa. Julia was more interested in Kara’s missing books, clothes and the message they received later. She was not pleased with how much they learned about Kara’s attackers. Maybe that was unfair. She was not sure she could’ve done any better. How so many people managed to get so close to Kara baffled her, but it was possible if they had one or more sorceresses with them. Marcia was right when she said this could not be the work of only one sister. Maybe of one wizard. The damage she saw on the field confirmed it. Yet something bothered her. She wasn’t sure what, but it was there.
“So the three hundred soldiers you were supposedly looking for, you weren’t really looking for them, because you knew they died here?”
“We are looking for them. It was Aleyna’s idea. Those three hundred soldiers have gone missing from somewhere. We sent messages to senators in Cuttland who were friendly to us and see if they can help. I have to say, you were really prepared when my men arrived?”
“I’ve got a message, too, Marcia. Mine was certainly from Kara. It was sent about the same time as yours and said the same things, to militarize and move troops to the mountains. Has anything happened before the attack that would make her send those messages?”
“She didn’t send the messages before, I promise you that,” Aleyna answered. “Someone must’ve made Rufus give up the codes.”
The senators were smiling at each other. They knew what Aleyna didn’t. She wasn’t one of them. “Aleyna, there are two very good reasons why that isn’t possible. First of all, you can’t break senators with torture. You might if you threaten someone they care about, but I wouldn’t bet on that either. And we would never give the right code. Secondly, Rufus didn’t know our code. My father doesn’t know it, Adrian doesn’t know it and Rufus didn’t know it. Only Kara and I knew it. That’s why I’m sure the message I received was from her. She was alive, Aleyna!”
She saw the spark of hope in Aleyna’s eyes. “Are you sure, Julia?”
“I am. Just like I am sure nobody knows the extent of our abilities.”
“I know them now,” Marcia said. “You girls have been keeping secrets. Very impressive.”
“There are a few things that bother me. You said that you think you found the place where Rufus’s body was cremated. I want to see it if that’s possible.”
All four western senators agreed. They didn’t see any problem with that.
“Another thing that bothers me is you have only sent messages to Cuttland. Why didn’t you send some to me, or Essland, or the other provinces?”
“The presence of sorceresses and free humans was a very strong indicator. We all know there are only two places in the empire where senators are forbidden to enter.”
Marcia was right, it was a strong indicator, but not a definitive one. Only in Veneguard and in the Land between the two Rivers, the sorceresses’ land, was entry forbidden to senators. They were the perfect places to train humans who wanted to attack her kind, without being discovered by them. Yet senators were certainly involved in Rufus’s death, so who was to say they didn’t know about the hostile group of humans. Maybe they let it go on beca
use they had a way to use them. They should send messages to everyone.
“Send messages to our friends in the rest of the provinces, Essland especially. Don’t send anything to Lucian, he won’t help. Dana and Aaron might.”
“So you think someone in Essland, namely Lucian, is responsible?”
Julia answered Marcia’s question. “I don’t know, but I don’t discount it. We are all here because we have some trust in each other and nobody thinks the others are guilty.’
“We are certain none of our senators were at the villa. We checked where everyone was. Reyna can vouch for that. It doesn’t mean they are innocent, it just means they were far away from there. We would like you to establish your whereabouts by lending us one of your guards who was with you and we will do the same.”
Julia laughed. “You two vouch for each other? That’s good enough for me. Sure, I’ll lend you one of my guards. But I have a request of my own. I want Aleyna, if she will agree, of course. I don’t want her forever, don’t worry. I just want to know what she saw.”
“Do you think I missed something?” Marcia sounded insulted.
She really did want to know what Aleyna had seen. A senator could get more from the memories of a human than its owner. Humans forgot, interpreted, distorted while the senators had access to memories in their unadulterated form. It was highly unlikely Marcia had made a mistake, but there was the possibility. The real reason she wanted Aleyna, however, was to make sure the human was treated with the proper respect. While she was under Marcia’s control there was no way she could be absolutely sure. “It is highly unlikely you missed something, Marcia, but I would like to know the story directly. It can’t hurt, can it?”
“All right,” Aleyna agreed. “She knows all I know, so I won’t be giving anything away.”
“You let her see your memories, but you won’t allow us? This is an insult.”
“It’s not an insult, Sarah, and you know it,” Christian confronted her. “You just want to know how powerful Kara is. Mother didn’t even tell me and let me tell you something, I don’t want to know. And you don’t want to know either, you just think you do. Did you know I wanted to test Kara once? I knew what mother said about her, but I didn’t believe it. I mean, I am really powerful, there can’t be that much of a power difference between us. She indulged me and it was far worse than any scenario I had imagined. That cured me of curiosity.”
“It is your choice,” Marcia said to Julia. “By revealing Kara’s powers I would expose yours. You girls are equals.”
“I am curious myself. I haven’t taken my powers to the extreme in a while.”
“Three hundred and fifty humans and five hundred paces.”
“That’s not possible,” Sarah showed her disbelief. “You are lying.”
“Satisfied now! I told you, you really didn’t want to know. And you did react exactly how I thought you would,” Christian rebuked her. “Mother isn’t lying!”
“Hmm, it was three hundred thirty-five when we tested our powers last time. That was years ago. We never really tested the distance. Can we go back to what’s important?”
They all agreed, but Sarah Levilla seemed unhappy. It was unclear if she believed them or not. Julia didn’t care. It was up to Kara to teach her young cousin a lesson, should she choose to. She gave Reyna and Marcia one of her guards who would verify she had not left Western Suttland in a while and took Aleyna away where they could talk without being overheard.
Julia took over Aleyna. “You can come with me, if you want. I see they treated you with the respect you deserve, but you could still choose to come with me.”
“Why would you want to take me with you? You don’t like me.”
“I like you Aleyna. In fact, I like you better than I like any other human who is not my family. Kara is family and you are a sister to her, so why don’t we put aside any differences we might have? There are not as many as you think. We should at least be friendly if not friends.”
Aleyna looked at her with surprise. “All right, let’s be friends. I would like to stay here, though. Not because they treated me like they would a consort, Christian even said I was one, although I wasn’t, but because I feel useful. I am lost without Kara.”
“You are a consort and you could be of use to me. You would be useful to anyone.”
“I want to stay here and investigate these priests of the Sun God. They are fools and might get a lot of people killed. Besides, I don’t like coincidences.”
Julia Mettela agreed. She didn’t believe in coincidences either and Aleyna was the best person to investigate these crazy, delusional priests. The human was unlikely to overreact and wouldn’t kill them on sight, which a senator almost certainly would do. She shouldn’t go to Hilderfort alone and should have some backing. There was no telling what she would find there. Humans ready to revolt, another senatorial family trying to move on their territory, counts and dukes trying to expand their sphere of influence or all of the above.
Now it was time to learn what Aleyna really knew. Julia reached for the memories. It was the most difficult task for a senator, harder than hearing the thoughts of a human or giving him orders. She found the memories. It took a fraction of a second but it felt like a lot longer. Julia saw the attack on Kara through Aleyna’s eyes. The appearance of the first wave of attackers, the initial success, the hopelessness Aleyna felt when she understood they were defeated and her escape. Marcia hadn’t lied about Kara’s powers.
Aleyna hadn’t seen Kara die, but the senator must’ve used all her reserves of power. Julia tried to imagine how she would try to get away. Not many other options other than fighting and almost certainly losing. Kara would fight to the end in a situation like that, just like she would. Her friend was smart. Maybe she had thought of something.
Julia replayed the scene of Aleyna’s escape until the moment she had been woken up by something that sounded a lot like the command of a senator. It was very possible Kara had given the order. Aleyna had been confident it wasn’t Kara’s voice, but when you only hear a voice in your mind it might sound different than in the real world.
Then she went to an earlier moment, when Aleyna jumped into the water and the man didn’t go in after her and decided she was dead. Julia saw something there Marcia hadn’t. Was it possible? It was a complicated plan and Kara was fighting for her life, but it was not outside the realm of possibility. “Maybe,” she spoke aloud without realizing. Aleyna looked at her strangely. Yet she couldn’t discard the possibility another senator had been present there. The most likely explanation was still that Aleyna had not received a command. It had been a dream. That’s what Aleyna believed, but what if another senator was there and what was that senator doing? She could find only one answer to that question and she didn’t like it.
Julia started to run projections of what could’ve happened to Kara after Aleyna made her escape in the forest. Kara dies and four or five sorceresses appear and kill all the soldiers. That was the fewest number of sorceresses who could do what she saw on that field. Scenario two was that Kara escaped and sorceresses appear and kill all the soldiers so they wouldn’t find out who sent them. That was stupid, Kara would already know who sent them. Maybe death was the punishment for failure. Then there was scenario three, which she believed and was supported by evidence. Sorceresses or a wizard join the battle, help Kara and kill the soldiers. There was no doubt in her mind Rufus had been incinerated by a person of power and his ashes taken to the crypt. And of all the senators who knew how to get to the crypt, only Kara could’ve been at the villa. All the others had alibis and were accounted for.
That would explain why all the bodies at the lake were incinerated and the dead at the villa weren’t. Kara didn’t care about the soldiers. However, she did care about her servants and guards and she would want their families to know what happened to them. Julia could see with her mind’s eye the events unfolding. Sorceresses help Kara win the battle at the lake. Then they hurried back to the villa
, only to find everybody dead. She cremated her father and then left the villa to go where? “How?” Again Julia spoke aloud and that amused Aleyna. How could four sorceresses be there at the right moment? Could Kara have hidden her control of at least four of them from everybody? She didn’t know about something like that and neither did the human. Somebody would’ve noticed it, so it was highly unlikely. It must’ve been a simple coincidence that sorceresses were there. Only she didn’t believe in coincidences and the sisters never came to Suttland. They kept to their lands and Veneguard. Not sorceresses, a wizard. That field screamed wizard to her and she didn’t know why. A wizard helping a senator, it must be the end of the world, and somehow she was sure that’s what happened. “Crazy bitch!”
What is your plan Kara? It should be simple. Go after the people who attacked you and Kara had to know who they were. She had taken control of some of them. But why go after them alone? Unless that wasn’t the plan. Suddenly Julia understood what Kara was doing, why she had become the lady of chaos. Why she sent those cryptic messages and let go of Aleyna. Chaos was her ally. “Clever, clever girl!” Julia knew the plan and she thought it was too risky. Time was working against Kara. Yet she knew one thing. Her friend’s plans were almost always successful. Julia had a big smile on her face.
“You know something, don’t you?” Aleyna questioned her.
“I can see some possibilities, but that’s all. Let’s return to the others.” Kara did everything possible to conceal her actions and she would do the same. When they returned to the group she asked Marcia. “Who do you think did all this, a wizard or sorceresses? Don’t analyze or overthink it, just tell me what your instinct told you when you saw this field.”
“Wizard,” Marcia answered and she seemed surprised by her own answer.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. There’s no way to tell the difference.”