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“Take the
lustful look from your eyes,”
Daniella
said. “You are
absolutely not going to kill our cousin. You must be well
alibied
when it happens.”

    
Richard
flopped into the nearest chair. “Can you at least have it done messy and let
the body be left where I can see it? Don’t rob me entirely.”

    
She
sighed. “I suppose I could arrange something to your liking. But the question
is, who will I find to do the deed? It must be someone I can trust to hold his
tongue concerning our involvement even if he’s caught.”

    
“Someone
you
trust?” He snorted. “Is there such a person?”

    
“Mark.”

    
“The
kennel keeper?” Richard made a face. It was beyond him why his sister should
cast her eyes so low. “You giving him a tumble now and then doesn’t make him
someone we can trust. I doubt anything you can do for him would be worth him
keeping his mouth shut if he’s caught murdering a noble.”

    
A small
smile touched her lips. “That’s a brother’s opinion.”

    
“A man
who would follow a woman around like a dog on a lead is a fool,” he said. “What
he can get from you can as easily be bought from a whore in any back alley
brothel.”

    
Something
darkened in
Daniella’s
eyes. “You are a pig, Richard.
You have always been a pig. You want to blame someone for your past
humiliation? Then blame yourself, not Charles. You wouldn’t have been so
blindsided if you could have fathomed the idea he would come after you for
daring to lay your hands on his sister.

    
“You
understand nothing of the relationship between a man and woman save for the
carnal and if you were anyone other than my brother I would not bother to spit
on you if I happened upon you burning in the street.

    
“Unfortunately
for me, you
are
my brother. My own burden to bear. And I will see you on
the throne if you can only keep your piggish behavior behind closed doors
during the duration of the High Priest’s stay here. No more throwing bloody
girls, naked or otherwise, out of your room. And when you are not in your
chambers you are to act as a man rather than a swine. Am I making myself
perfectly clear?”

    
Richard
gritted his teeth against the reply he would have liked to make. “Clear as
glass.”

    
“Good,”
she said. “Because we have more to lose than the crown.”

    
He
frowned. “What do you mean?”

    
“Never
mind.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Continue to do as I say and we will
both have everything we want.”

    
As she
walked to the door, Richard worked up the nerve to ask her something he had
never dared ask before. “And what is it you want?”

    
Daniella
paused, one hand on the door, and when she
answered her words were so soft he wasn’t even certain he’d heard her right.
“To live.” And then she was out the door and gone before he could say another
word.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

    
Moonlight
graced Manny’s cheek like the hand of a lover. He drew in a deep, full breath
of the crisp night air and sighed. It was so good to be home. If only they had
returned for some better purpose.

    
He gazed
up at the stars. Their light tonight was intense, speaking to the fire spirit’s
continued unrest. When he’d first witnessed the portents pointing toward a coming
storm one night from the roof of the Mercenary’s Guild, it had come to him at
last he was to find the path leading to oneness with the air spirit. And when
Nephima
had woken from a troubled sleep to speak to them
about the Cataclysm he believed the path was reveled.

    
But Jesse
had not wanted to go with
Nephima
and Brandon on
their great quest to save the world. Demons and gods and greatness were beyond
him. All he understood was profit and enjoyment and he had seen neither in
their enterprise. So he returned to Marigold and, as he had
 
since they were boys, Manny followed.

    
Now here
they were in
Kartesk
, set on desecrating the most
holiest of temples. Jesse was not a religious man, but he was a respecter of
others beliefs. Or at least he had always been before. It seemed enough wealth
could corrupt even him.

    
And still
Manny remained at his side. Not only because they were bound one to the other,
but also because he loved Jesse too much to let him come on his own. The man
could be so reckless, he
needed
Manny to keep him safe. Which was why he
had come into this business of being a mercenary in the first place, when his
nature should have shunned such a violent vocation.

    
Manny was
born to be a priest. The air spirit had chosen him for it. But becoming bound
to Jesse had removed him from his proper path and he feared he could never find
his way back to it so long as his friend was alive.

    
A cloud
moved across the moon. The air spirit working in conjunction with the fire
spirit who governed the celestial bodies. Manny reached out a hand, wanting
nothing more than to hear the sweet whisper of his kindred spirit. Only the
silence of the night met his mute plea. He lowered his hand.

    
Though
Manny’s people did not count the passing of time in years, still he knew he was
of an age where the air spirit should have already communicated with him if she
were ever going to. Few things in life were worth fearing in his mind, but to
never attain oneness with his kindred spirit was among them.

    
Logic
dictated he should take himself off this mad quest before it was too late. But
logic took a backseat to the matters of the heart. Manny could still recall the
first time Ash brought Jesse to the village.

    
Ash was a
trader dealing in all matter of sundry goods and the only such allowed in
Kartesk
. This was due to his father, also a trader, who had
long ago befriended a most revered priest of the Children and then married the
man’s daughter, making himself and his son Ash as good as family in the eyes of
Children.

    
During
his father’s life, Ash had assisted him in his trader work and then took over
when the man died. Thus he traveled away from the village more often than not,
but always returned twice a year for a brief stay. One summer he brought with
him a young boy. Not his son by blood, but by virtue of having married the
boy’s mother, who had passed on in the winter.

    
Manny,
being the revered priest’s grandson, had been raised to consider Ash family. So
it was no stretch for him to include Jesse in such thinking. And so they became
brother’s in heart. Indeed, Manny felt closer to Jesse than many of his blood
kin. Despite the man’s faults, and of those he had many, he was at his core a
good and decent person. Even if he didn’t always act like it.

    
The sound
of light footsteps alerted Manny to
Nika’s
approach
well before she sat down beside him. “I do not mean to interrupt your
contemplations, nor force you to speak on an unpleasant subject, but Jesse has
told me why you’ve come and asked me to lead the way.”

    
“Was he
upset when you said no?”
 

    
She went
so long without replying it drew Manny’s attention from the sky. “You said
yes?”

    
Nika
nodded, her expression pinched. “I love him too. Not
as much as you, perhaps, but enough so I can refuse him nothing.”

    
“What has
the earth spirit to say of this?”

     
Nika
ran her fingers through the grass. “He is silent on
the subject. Which is strange. But of late I have felt something in the trees
and the ground. Something coming.”

    
“I know,”
he said. “I too feel the spirit’s unease.”

    
Nika
laid her hand on Manny’s shoulder. “Though the spirit
does not speak to me on this matter, still I believe we are meant to walk this
path. If not, the earth spirit would tell me. He would never allow me to lead
Jesse to the temple if it was a sacrilege.”

    
“But
why?” Manny asked. “Why would the spirits want us to do this thing?”

    
“I don’t
know.” She squeezed his shoulder. “We must simply have faith. Perhaps this is
your true path to lead you to the air spirit. She chose you for a reason and
nothing you have done in this life has made you unworthy of her.”

    
Manny
stared once again at the stars, wishing he could have such confidence in the
future. “We know so little of the
Omnidex
. What
purpose might it be used for in the wrong hands?”

    
“It came
to us from the spirits,”
Nika
said. “Thus it can be
nothing of evil intent.”

    
Once
again, she seemed so certain and yet he had a doubt. And perhaps this was why
the air spirit remained elusive. These rare but pervasive doubts he’d picked up
in his journeys beyond
Kartesk
.

    
“We will
leave at first light.”
Nika
rose to her feet, only to
pause. “Tell me something. What do you think of Ethan?”

    
“Very
little, in all truth.” He met her gaze. “Why?”

    
She shook
her head. “I don’t know. Something about him is... strange to me. I find I
cannot read his heart. He bears watching, I think.”

    
This was,
at last, a sentiment they both could share.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

    
Mark lay
on his back in the bed with
Daniella’s
head a
pleasant weight on his shoulder. Silver moonlight fell through the partially
opened curtains to trace the outline of her face. He brushed his fingers across
her fair skin with a gentleness she would not have tolerated were she awake.

    
In sleep
she was softer, warmer. Mark could imagine lying every night with her this way.
The thought brought a bittersweet smile to his lips, for he knew it could never
be. He brushed his lips across the top of her head. And then he spoke the words
he would never dare speak where she could hear. “I love you,
Dani
.”

    
Much as
Mark hated to leave the bed, it always irritated
Daniella
to wake lying next to him, so he slipped away from her. She would want to wake
early and get back to her chambers before the dawn, especially with the High
Priest here, but he thought he could let her sleep a while longer.
         
He was surprised she’d even shown up
on his doorstep tonight. It made him wonder if perhaps she wanted something
from him. Something she thought would be more easily spoken of after a tumble
between the sheets.

    
After
settling down in a chair in the corner, Mark contented himself to watching
Daniella
sleep. He’d never known it was possible to feel so
much for another person. Trust his fool heart to go and fall this hard for a
woman who could never be completely his.

    
It wasn’t
long before she stirred and woke, yawning as she glanced at him in the corner.
“How long were you going to let me sleep?”

    
“A little
longer. It’s still hours until dawn.”

    
She
pressed her face into the pillow, her shoulders rising and falling with a sigh.
Then she sat up holding the sheets to cover her chest. “We need to talk about
why I came here tonight.”

    
He
grinned rakishly even as his guts clenched in preparation for whatever she was
about to say. “I think we worked that out fine without need of words.”

    
Daniella
rolled her eyes. “Honestly Mark, can’t you be
serious for five minutes?”

    
“I can
try.” He made an expression of mock seriousness. “You have my every attention,
your Highness.” This was most certainly true. Nothing in the world was more important
at that moment than having her there in his bed in the moonlight with her hair
falling across her bare shoulders. One of many images he would store away in
his mind to comfort, or perhaps torture, himself after their inevitable
parting.

    
“I didn’t
risk the High Priest finding out about us merely for the sake of play,” she
said with a touch of irritation. “I came here to find out whether or not you
are a man of your word.”

    
“What
word is that?” It was so hard to concentrate on what she was saying when all he
could think about was the glory hidden behind the thin sheet.

    
“The one
you gave to me when we last spoke.”

    
A cold
feeling swept through Mark. He knew exactly what she was referring to, but
chose to keep up the facade in the weak hope of dissuading her. “You mean about
me fathering the next king of Hyacinth? The offer certainly still stands.”

    
“No,”
Daniella
huffed. “About Charles. You can’t be so ignorant
as to not know he’s here with my father’s pet knight.”

    
“I had
heard something of that, yes. But I didn’t think much of it.” On the contrary,
Charles being at the castle had been a heavy weight on his chest ever since he
first learned of it.

    
“Well
you’d better start thinking something of it,” she snapped. “Surely you can
guess at why he’s here.”

    
“He means
to make a bid for the throne.”