“If you’re going to help me discover who killed the other ancient, you will need to be amongst more of my kind. I cannot bring you near them if you plan to personally present justice for their crimes.”
I tried to call back my anger, but it was no use. I was just too tired. “The dead deserve justice.”
“Perhaps, but it does not always have to be dealt by your hand.”
I looked up at him. “How about this. If I am to meet a vampire, forewarn them to commit no crimes in front of me. If I do not personally see them attacking or killing someone, I will have no need to hunt them.”
A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “My, what a generous compromise.”
I glared, tugging my cloak more tightly around me. “My advice to you would be to accept what you can get.”
Steifan peeked back into the alcove to find Asher grinning. He seemed to take it as a sign that it was safe to return, and stepped the rest of the way into the space, a few small jagged pieces of wood bundled under one arm.
He tossed the wood into the dirt. “I was able to beg a flint and steel from a merchant caravan. They didn’t seem to want to ask any questions once they noticed the blood on my clothes.”
I used the distraction to step away from Asher. “We need to discuss the Nattmara. We must seek out his lair and weaken him before he can find—” I hesitated, not wanting to speak Ryllae’s name out loud. “What he seeks,” I finished.
Asher followed me to stand in front of the fire Steifan was attempting to build. “It nearly killed you tonight, now you want to find its lair?”
Steifan and Asher both looked at me as I explained, “The Nattmara’s lair is its place of power, a site for ritual magic. When I slew Egar’s sister, I was able to weaken her by destroying a ritual urn.”
“But Egar is as much Sidhe as he is Nattmara,” Steifan countered. “His magic may not be the same.”
He was right, but I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t just wait around for Egar to find us again. “He travels the canals. If he does have a lair, I think it is somewhere down there. It is the only way I can think of to weaken him.”
Smoke billowed up from Steifan’s small wood pile. “And what about everything else we discovered tonight?” Steifan asked. “We must remember we are here to solve Duchess Auclair’s murder.”
I sat in the dirt, extending my cold hands toward the first small flames. “Tomorrow we will go to Duke Auclair and tell him what we know. He can either admit his role in things, or we will take our findings to the Archduke.”
“What about the Montrants?”
I stared down into the flames, wondering if the Potentate had known what he was sending us into. “Let us start with the duke. We don’t actually have any solid evidence, so having his testimony will help. If he is frightened enough, he may tell us if the Montrants are in charge, or simply just involved.”
My shoulders began to relax from the fire’s warmth. I longed for my comfortable bed at Castle Helius, with four safe walls and a locked door.
Asher loomed over the fire, but did not sit. I was pretty sure vampires never got cold. “You should rest,” he said to me. “I will keep watch.”
I gave him an incredulous look. “You expect me to trust you enough to sleep in front of you?”
He stared at me, his face impassive.
I chewed the inside of my cheek. I didn’t need a vampire watching over me. I didn’t want a vampire watching over me. But Steifan and I were alone in this city. The Nattmara was out there, and I couldn’t forget that someone had been hired to kill us. So maybe I just didn’t want a vampire watching over me, but the need would have to outweigh my pride, if only to keep Steifan and the girl safe for the night.
“Fine,” I acquiesced.
Steifan gave me a shooing gesture with his hands across the fire, urging me to say more.
I gritted my teeth. “You have my thanks.”
Asher shrugged and walked toward the opening of the alcove. “Consider it pre-payment for the aid you will give me once we are back in the mires.”
I stared at his back for a moment, then shook my head. Usually, I found men easy to understand, but the vampire perplexed even me.
Steifan had already laid on his back in the dirt and closed his eyes. He didn’t seem perplexed by the vampire.
I tugged my hood up, then curled on my side near the fire, wrapping my cloak around me. I left my sword on, just in case. Maybe I didn’t understand men as well as I thought, though I really hated being wrong.
I closed my eyes, willing myself to rest. While I could have gone another night or two without sleep, there was no saying what morning might bring, and I needed to restore my energy if I was to hunt the Nattmara.
As I fell in and out of wakefulness, I sensed Asher’s eyes on me from time to time, and I noticed when he added a bit more wood to the fire.
Eventually I forced myself to actually sleep. After all, he could only watch us until dawn. For as human as he sometimes seemed, he was still a creature of the night. And that was a fact I would never forget.
Morning came too soon, and my stomach was painfully empty. I sat up to find Steifan already awake, speaking with the girl, who seemed calm.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” I groaned.
Steifan and the girl both looked to me. She seemed older now than I had originally thought, just small-boned.
“Asher woke me when he had to leave,” Steifan explained. “He said you expended too much energy last night . . . dealing with things. He asked that I let you rest.”
I pinched my brow as a dull ache started between my eyes. “I would like to argue, but I cannot. I don’t usually sleep so deeply.”
“Perhaps he knows what’s best for you.” Steifan winked.
I rubbed my sore head as the ache progressed. “I really wish I had something to throw at you right now.” I turned my attention to the girl. “Are you alright?”
She nodded, though her eyes were a touch wary.
“She lives not far from here,” Steifan explained. “She didn’t know the man who took her from the square, nor did she at any time see anyone she recognized.”
Though I felt like a sack of manure, I forced myself to stand. “We will walk you home then,” I said to the girl. “I would ask that you hide away for the next few days until we make sure we find everyone involved in kidnapping you.”
As she stood, I looked her up and down, ending with her bare feet. “What happened to your shoes?” I asked.
“They took them when I tried to run away. They said if I tried again, they would cut off my feet. Steifan says you don’t yet know who took me.”
I sighed. “We have a few ideas. Are you acquainted with any of the nobility?”
Frowning, she shook her head.
I believed her. She had probably just been randomly chosen. Like the Nattmara said, vampires will eat just about anything.
I tugged up my hood, covering my hair, then moved the Seeing Sword back to my belt. “Let’s go, I need something to eat.”
I turned away, heading out of the alcove. Steifan and the girl followed. It was an effort to keep my dizziness at bay. I hadn’t realized how much I had pushed myself to break the Nattmara’s glamour.
While I was reluctant to visit Ryllae again, I might just have to find her after we visited the duke. I needed to be better prepared to break Egar’s glamour, or else next time I faced him—with him ready for my new skills—I would lose.
Chapter Fifteen
Mid-morning found us back at the wrought iron gates leading to the wealthy district, arguing with the two guards, again. At least the girl’s husband had insisted he provide us with a meal when we brought her home, else I would not have been able to maintain my temper.
I was barely maintaining it as it was.
The guard arguing fervently with us was the same one who had escorted us to the duke’s estate. “Come back in proper attire, and I will let you through,” he said for the hundredth time.
Steifan and I were both still in our traveling cloaks. The fabric was dark enough to hide the blood stains, and we used them to cover the more obvious stains on our clothing underneath.
I crossed my arms. “We are not leaving to simply change into our armor and return. Just the other day you didn’t want us passing with armor and weapons. Now you want us to have them?”
He glanced at the sword still obvious at my hip, even though it was mostly covered by my cloak. “You still have weapons, and now you don’t even look like hunters of the Helius Order. I won’t be up on charges of letting mercenaries past my guard.”
“But we’re not mercenaries,” I growled.
“But you look like mercenaries.”
I wanted to argue that we could just go through the bloody canals and bypass them, but one, I didn’t want him to know we knew about them, and two, I didn’t want to risk running into Egar again before we could confront the duke.
Steifan and I both turned at footsteps approaching our backs. It was the duke himself, looking disheveled and flustered. Surprisingly, he seemed relieved to see us. “I’ve been looking for you two everywhere. Come with me.” His beady eyes scorned the guards yet blocking our way. “What are you waiting for? Open the gate.”
The guards hurried to obey, and I couldn’t help my smug smile as Steifan and I followed the duke through the entrance.
Not saying a word, the duke led the way toward his estate.
I glanced at Steifan as we followed the duke’s podgy, brocade-clad form, my brows lifted in question.
Steifan shrugged. So we both didn’t know why the duke had sought us out personally, rather than sending Vannier or another servant.
We reached the estate, then waited while the duke ascended the short exterior stairs, opening the door himself. No sign of Vannier within. We went inside, and the duke shut and locked the door behind us.
“Upstairs,” he said. “I don’t want to risk someone listening at any of the windows.”
We followed him across the sitting room, then up the stairs. The situation was getting stranger and stranger, but my sword hadn’t warned me. We weren’t being lured into a trap.
Once we were upstairs, the duke gestured for us to go through the first doorway, which led into a large office. Open shutters let in a cool breeze. There were two chairs on the far side of the desk, opposite the over-cushioned monstrosity meant for the duke.
I decided against either chair, opting to lean my back lightly against the wall just inside the doorway.
The duke didn’t seem to take offense. He hurried around Steifan, then stood facing us both. He tugged a handkerchief from his vest pocket, wiping the sheen of sweat from his forehead. “I have something I must admit to both of you. My life is in danger.”
I crossed my arms, waiting for him to continue. If he was about to tell us everything, there was no need to threaten him yet with the information we had discovered.
He glanced around the office, as if someone else had followed us up the stairs, but we were entirely alone. I heard nary a sound from the rest of the house.
“I didn’t find Charlotte’s body here,” he breathed. “I found her rotting in the slums.”
He seemed to expect surprise from us, but neither of our faces gave anything away. I nodded for him to continue.
He licked his lips, considering his next words. “I knew she wasn’t killed by the vampire who bit her, but I needed a reason to bring in outside help. I wanted hunters to investigate her murder because too many of the city guard are involved.”
I lifted my brows. He had finally managed to surprise me. “You wanted us to investigate, even though you knew she wasn’t killed by a vampire?”
He nodded quickly, his eyes wide. “I can trust no one within the city. I needed outside help. I . . . I wanted out, and they killed her as a warning to me.”
I decided to put him out of his misery, if only to speed the conversation along. “You were involved in the kidnappings, and you knew they were being sold to vampires.”
He paled. “How did you—”
“You wanted us to investigate, did you not? We could tell Charlotte had been moved here through the canals after her death, and we found Jeramy DeRose. And you obviously know that two men and a vampire were killed in the canals last night, or else you wouldn’t have so desperately sought us out this morning.”
The duke hung his head, shuffling around the desk to slump down into his chair. He rubbed his eyes with one plump hand. “They think I sent you down into the canals. They’ve realized why I really called you here.”
I stepped toward the desk. “Who are they? Who is in charge?”
“So you haven’t figured out everything then,” he muttered. “Bellamy Montrant. He is the one who made the deal with the vampires. Charlotte had started a . . . business, else we would have gone destitute. When Bellamy approached me with an opportunity, I jumped at it. I would have done anything so that Charlotte could . . . ”
Steifan moved forward and took one of the chairs across the desk from the duke. “We know of Charlotte’s business, you can speak freely.”
I blinked at them both, realizing something. The duke was a terrible man, but he did have an ounce of honor to him after all. “That’s why you didn’t want us to have Charlotte’s ledger. You didn’t want anyone else knowing her secret. You hoped we could solve her murder without uncovering that aspect.”
His face pinched and grew red. “So you knew about the ledger, then. I did want to keep her secret buried. She deserved that much consideration, at least. When she started coming home with the vampire bites, I worried she was going to get herself killed. I think—” he shook his head. “I think she was actually in love with the creature, and she never would have met him had I not involved us in Montrant’s scheme.”
I nodded along. “You tried to pull out to get her away from the vampire, and you think Montrant killed her to send you a message. But why was she meeting with Jeramy DeRose?”
He hung his head. “That was my fault too. I knew Montrant was watching me, so I sent Charlotte there instead. Jeramy was the first person Bellamy approached about his scheme. When he refused, the Montrants ruined him. I thought if we went to Jeramy, we might have enough evidence to approach the Archduke.”
“And you think Montrant killed them both,” I finished for him. “When Charlotte never returned, you went looking for her body, and knowing she had vampire bites, you devised your plan. But why wait so long to bring her body home? The rot would suggest she was in Jeramy’s home for quite some time.”
He grimaced. “I had to figure out a way to bring her body back without anyone seeing it, but I didn’t know who to trust. I knew she was supposed to meet with the vampire the following week. She always met him on the same night, so I went in her stead. I think the creature loved her too, as much as he was able. He helped me move her body.”
I stared at him. “If the vampire really loved her, why didn’t he avenge her?”
The duke looked like he was trying to swallow something sharp. “He said there was an ancient vampire involved, and he could not stand against him. After he helped me move Charlotte’s body, he fled the city. He agreed that I should contact the Helius Order, but wanted to be nowhere near once you arrived.”
“Smart vampire,” Steifan muttered.
I considered all the duke had told us. It made sense. If he would repeat the story to the Archduke, and we could provide validity by backing up his claims, we might just get permission to launch a full investigation. No more sneaking through canals or having our way barred by guards.
“We will go to the Archduke immediately,” I decided. “You will repeat everything you have told us.”
His eyes went wide. He stood, staggering backwards with palms outstretched. “No, you don’t understand. I’ll be killed before I can utter a word. Too many guards are involved.” He backed away until he was near the open window. “You’ll have to go to the Archduke yourselves.”
>
I heard the bolt release outside, and opened my mouth to shout a warning, but I was too late. The duke’s body lurched forward as an arc of blood erupted from his neck.
Steifan hopped over the desk to land beside the fallen duke while I rushed to the window. I peered out just in time to see a figure in the duke’s garden, hiding a crossbow in the folds of his loose cloak. A hood shadowed his face.
I rushed passed Steifan and out into the hall, then took the stairs down two by two. I exited the estate, then practically flew back to the garden, vaulting over the tall fence. I whipped around, scanning the manicured shrubs and the garrish fountain.
I cursed under my breath. I hadn’t been fast enough. The garden was empty, and I had seen the duke’s wound. He would not survive to tell his tale again.
“Lyss!” A voice I recognized called out.
It was almost too much to hope for, but when I turned I spotted Tholdri’s golden hair out on the street beyond the fence. He wore his full armor, with a sword at his shoulder.
I cast a final glance around the garden, then ran toward him. “What in the Light are you doing here?”
He gave me a smug smile and leaned his hands against the fence. “I convinced the Potentate to let me come. I told him I was worried you would get into trouble amongst the nobles. I was just coming to Duke Auclair’s to look for you.”
I shook my head, overwhelmingly grateful to see him, but too busy to express it. “We need to get back inside. Someone just hit the duke with a crossbow through the window. I ran out here looking for them, but they’re gone.”
His eyes widened. “Why wasn’t that the first thing out of your mouth when you saw me?”
He turned away from the fence, leaving me to vault over it and catch up to his back as he walked toward the door. We both hurried inside and up the stairs, finding Steifan just about to come down them.
His grim expression and bloody hands told me what I already knew. “He’s dead.” He looked to me. “Did you find who shot the bolt?”
I stepped next to him and shook my head. “I wasn’t fast enough, Tholdri found me as I was searching the garden.”
Trick of Shadows (The Duskhunter Saga Book 2) Page 10