Blood Lies (Dark Brothers of the Light #9) (20 page)

"Caught me staring?"

"Uh huh."

"Dance again?"

"Certainly."

With Chinisi's help, they glided through the
first three dances and then he led her to the side and sat her down
at one of the small tables. "Refreshments?"

She nodded prettily, and Stygean suppressed
an urge to kiss her.

Instead he went to the main tables for
glasses of wine for each of them and some of the dainties, folded
meats, and cheese with olives, mushrooms and other delicacies
pinned together with a single silver spear. He made his way back
without bumping into any of the older folk and reached their
table.

Jingen had taken his place beside Chinisi.
Rage roared up in Stygean's middle and added quite a bit of heat to
his tone. "What are you doing here?"

His rival smiled with the faintest twist of
a sneer. "I saw Chinisi sitting alone. So I thought I would make
certain she had not been abandoned."

"She hasn't been." Stygean slid the plates
and the two wine glasses onto the table. "That's my place.
Move."

Chinisi listened to them with lowered head
and brightening cheeks, struggling to hide her delight at Stygean's
reaction.

A familiar face peered over the top the
mountain of gifts beneath the solstice tree. Chinisi saw him and
started shaking her head and mouthing the word, "No" over and over
again.

"Make me." Jingen's lips curled up.

Stygean's fingers curled into fists, his
knuckles whitening. He could think of nothing to do that would not
get him into more trouble.

Alassance waved a piece of rope at Chinisi,
grinning.

She glanced from Stygean to Jingen and then
mouthed 'no' at Alassance again.

Alassance disappeared behind the gifts and
then a long piece of rope snaked along the wall, headed in Jingen's
direction.

Chinisi rose and headed for the gifts
without saying anything to either boy, determined to stop
Alassance.

"Now look what you've done," Stygean snarled
at Jingen. "She's leaving!"

"I didn't do anything." Jingen jumped to his
feet, only to crash face down with the chair atop him: Alassance
had tied his ankles to the chair legs. The rope released and
returned to its master.

Stygean sucked in a sharp breath and fled
after Chinisi. He caught up with her just as she emerged from
behind the gifts holding Alassance by the ear.

Trumpets blared and the door snapped
open.

Instantly, Chinisi grabbed Stygean and
shifted her hold on Alassance from his ear to his arm. "Stand up.
Stand up! It's the king."

Around them, everyone was rising.

She snagged Stygean's hand as the king moved
to the head of the room and Lord Edvarde gave up his seat to his
nephew. King Jurgen the Sixth was of middle height and slender with
long wavy hair held in place by a simple circlet. People began
queuing up in pairs to offer their greeting to him.

Chinisi whispered to Stygean as she drew him
into the line. "Now bow from the waist while I curtsey."

* * * *

Jingen had had enough humiliation by the
time he found an excuse to leave the party and headed upstairs. He
stalked through the corridor of the wing where he had his room,
fuming and muttering under his breath. The corridor was empty. He
reached the door to his chambers and then remembered that Alassance
had also left early. A desire for payback welled up in him. That
little, no-talent human had embarrassed him twice that day. So
Jingen headed two doors further and quietly tested the knob on
Alassance's door. It was unlocked.

He stole inside and glanced about the little
parlor, which had only a single cabinet and a square table that sat
four. The bedroom door was closed. Jingen put his ear to it and
heard nothing, so he opened it quietly. The bed was empty. A quick
glance showed no sign of the little rat. Disappointment made Jingen
start to leave, and then a desire to cause trouble, emboldened by
Alassance's absence, made him decide to poke around.

Jingen started by squatting down and looking
under the bed. There was nothing there – not even a dust bunny. He
opened the drawer of the bed stand, finding a yoyo, a ball of
twine, and several different lengths of rope. There were two
cabinets, a chifferobe and a closet on the far side. One cabinet
proved to be empty. The second one had a wash basin, a ewer of
water, and a burlap sack. Jingen opened the sack and found candy
and cookies, nothing else. The chifferobe proved to be empty also,
so Jingen tried the closet. There were racks of clothes on either
side, a shelf above the clothes and shelves along the back.

A scraping noise drew Jingen's attention to
the highest shelf. "Mice?"

Jingen shrieked as a net dropped over him
and he felt his mage centers go dead. "Spellcord! You bastard."

Alassance dropped to the floor and kicked
Jingen. "You upper class snots always take the bait."

Jingen struggled to untangle himself, but
only made it worse. "I'll rip your fucking mind apart when I get
free."

Alassance laughed at Jingen and tapped his
own forehead. "Not likely. It's warded, and by my liege-god herself
no less. Dynanna does it proper."

"You're lying."

The boy left Jingen and returned to sit
cross-legged in the doorway with his sack of treats, munching on a
cookie. "Think about it. You snot-nosed eejits do know how to
think, don't you?" Alassance waited for a reply, which did not
come, and then started talking again. "I spent three weeks in
Charas after it fell. Demons and sa'necari were everywhere. They
couldn't catch me and it was not for lack of trying."

"I'll get you."

Alassance yawned. "If you'd calm down, you
might eventually figure out how to get loose." He reached into his
sack and placed a pile of candy just out of Jingen's reach. "I'm
going to the kitchen and see if I can cage some seconds. That roast
boar was very tasty. I'll check on you when I get back."

Jingen screamed insults at Alassance's
disappearing back. The door closed, leaving him in the dark and he
continued to shriek and rage until he finally ran out of breath and
grew hoarse. A tear of frustration ran down Jingen's cheek. He
slowly worked his fingers through the mesh and snagged a candy.

Jingen stole down to the blood-slave
chambers in the dungeons and managed to get his mother alone. She
sat in her black robes on a chest, staring into a candle lamp. By
its light, Jingen could see the two day old scar from Anksha's most
recent feeding. It angered him that the Beast fed upon his mother,
that some mouth other than his had moved upon her flesh, dared to
sink fangs into it.

"I can't stop thinking how the new
apprentice humiliated me. Bad enough he's human." Jingen pushed up
his sleeve and offered his wrist to his mother. Then he talked
while his mother fed.

Disharyl lifted her face and wiped her mouth
on a corner of her robe. "You've been practicing what I taught
you?"

A feral light entered Jingen's slanted eyes.
"Yes, Mother. On the nibari."

"The alterations must be infinitesimal. You
must commit the acts you wish Stygean to be considered guilty of,
then switch your faces in her mind. Anything that does not fit, you
must blur sufficiently that no one, especially Chinisi, can
decipher the truth. If her feelings for him are true ones, then you
must switch those in her mind so that she believes it was you."

"Yes, Mother." Jingen began to imagine
having Chinisi, feeling her body struggle beneath his, feeling his
mind slide like a knife through her consciousness. He suspected
that he could get her pregnant easily – there were two nibari
already carrying his get. Sa'necari were not normally this fertile;
in fact, most of the older males were sterile by age thirty. An odd
fact that no one had yet figured out the reason for.

"Now give me what I want," Disharyl said,
opening her bodice and lifting her breasts out. Jingen fastened on
her left breast, sucking, as his mother's skillful hands slid into
his pants to fondle him. When he hardened, Disharyl opened his
pants and pulled her skirts to her hips. Jingen mounted her,
thinking that only Chinisi could possibly feel as good beneath him
as his mother did.

* * * *

Kell Diego Montoya had a Gormondi mother and
a Minnorian father. A Minnorian guardsmon, he had fled Minnoras as
it fell with his friend and fellow guardsmon, Ifor Huerta – another
product of a Gormondi-Minnorian marriage – and fallen in with a
small group of refugees led by Nans Gryphonheart. Deryna leaned
against Kell, his arm around her shoulders. The tiny, mouse-brown
haired healer had been the first of their little band rescued by
Nans when the city fell to Galee and Zyne's coup.

The trio were waiting for Nans at a camp at
the edge of Ildyrsetts with ten other adults that had made the
journey on hearing that Isranon intended to winter at Edvarde's
mansion. A crowd had gathered at the edges, women and children
mostly, but it was clear from their reaction that it was Isranon,
not Nans, they were waiting for. The children rushed him, squealing
and laughing.

"Our mage! Our mage! Our mage!"

For one blissful instant Isranon could not
think. Then he squatted, settling Warrior in the crook of his arm,
and began talking and hugging, letting them climb all over him. He
kissed the tops of the littlest ones heads while Anksha laughed.
These were the children he had rescued along the road to Ildyrsetts
in their flight from Minnoras. He felt still more distanced from
his beginnings, as if wakened from a dark dream to the bright light
of dawn, yet it was a dawn that must be fought for – and perhaps
died for. But he was willing; standing there, seeing the smiles on
those children's faces, he was very willing. Isranon set them
aside. Nans and the others had gone ahead, leaving him and Anksha
behind. He spoke a moment with the mothers and then went after
them.

Deryna came to Isranon immediately, her hand
drawn to the godmark on his forehead. "Mage-paladin! You're well,
now?"

Isranon gave her a quiet smile. "I'm much
better."

Deryna shot Nans a glance and got only a
tiny shake of her head for answer that said
later
. A worried light came into the healer's eyes and
then was gone.

"Deryna has brought us healers: three Menders,
several surgeons and a veritable horde of Readers. They'll be
riding with us." Nans added, gesturing at Deryna, "His powers have
grown immensely. No doubt, you've been hearing tales of
Dawnreturning, even here. A master of life-magic. It is all
true."

Deryna hugged him, kissing his cheek. "I'm
proud of you."

Yet it made Isranon's cheeks warm
uncomfortably, like an embarrassed little boy's. It was something
like Aisha might have said when he had chopped a particularly fine
stack of wood back on Claw's farm. "Thank you. Uh, now that we've
got some real healers, I don't suppose any of you are
midwives?"

"I am," Deryna said. "Why? Who's having a
baby?"

Isranon pulled Anksha close, his face
flushing hotter. "We are."

Nevin, Luck and Travis roared with laughter
at Isranon's discomfiture.

Luck nudged Isranon. "Just keep saying it
and you'll get used to it."

* * * *

Alassance walked out to the rear yard to
watch the final event of the snow contests that Jeevys had been
overseeing. Watching the other boys at play along the edges as the
finalists prepared themselves in the middle, Alassance experienced
an ache in a spot where he believed he had long ago stopped caring:
hunger for companionship.

There were four groups, two building snow
forts and the other two making mounds of snowballs. Grygg's group
was one short. Dahnig spied Alassance and waved at him. "Hey,
Alassance, Stygean's disappeared on us again. We need a fourth.
Want to help?"

"Sure." Alassance joined them in the middle.
"Why didn't Stygean come?"

Dahnig chuckled and then Grygg laughed,
thumbing at Iyan.

The youngest boy snickered. "I went to find
him and caught him at it."

"At what?"

"Snogging Chinisi in that little thicket
behind the stables. Figured it was best to leave them to it."

Alassance grinned and started adding
snowballs to the mound. "You think he'll get lucky?"

"Nah," said Grygg. "Chinisi's too proper to
let him lift her skirts."

A whistle blew and they all
straightened.

Jeevys indicated a large hourglass with a
flourish.

"Get ready," said Grygg. "Dahnig and I are
the wall breakers. You two are the pitchers. Hit them hard and
fast. Keep them down while we charge."

The moment that Jeevys turned the hourglass
over, Alassance and Iyan started pelting the snow fort.

Standing in the shadows of the trees,
Stygean held Chinisi's hand, happiness dimming in his eyes. "I let
them down again."

"They have Alassance."

"They were supposed to have me." Stygean led
Chinisi deeper into the trees and kissed her. "I have to stop
seeing you like this."

"But you only just started." Chinisi stamped
her foot. "Just since the dance. You said you loved me."

Stygean ducked his head, sighing. "I know.
But I have to stop. It's going to get me in trouble. Getting myself
in trouble also hurts my master and Nevin. So we have to stop
seeing each other."

Chinisi started to argue, then her eyes
teared up and she fled.

He felt like his stomach had fallen around
his ankles as he walked back to yard. Dahnig and Grygg were in the
middle of a tussle with the defenders, knocking the walls down.
Alassance had closed the distance, still tossing hard. Iyan ran
back and forth between the mound of ammunition and Alassance,
re-arming him.