Queen of the Darkness (46 page)

Turning his head a little, he stared at an odd pile of brown clothing, neatly folded.

Suddenly, his heart pounded. Suddenly, it was hard to breathe.

The surrounding shadows shifted just enough for him to see that the odd pile wasn’t clothing, it was brown skin.

As he drew in a breath to scream, glowing red eyes appeared in the darkness around him.

Even with her head under the water, Surreal heard Kartane scream.

She popped up out of the water, then immediately lowered herself to her neck. The pool, fed by a hot spring, was delightfully warm, but the air was cool enough to bite.

She heard snarls, a howl, a terrified shriek.

The air wasn’t the only thing around there that had a bite.

”So this is Hell,” she said, looking around. It was too dark to see much, but the area around the pool had a kind of stark beauty.

”This is Hell,” Titian replied, a blissful smile on her face. She straightened up and gave Surreal a searching look. ”Has the debt been paid to your satisfaction, Surreal?”

The snarls and shrieks stopped for a moment, then started again.

”Yes,” Surreal said, leaning back with a sigh, ”I’m satisfied.”

6 / Kaeleer

”Sometimes the heart reveals more than panes of glass can.”

Saetan turned away from the window, tensed, took a step forward, stopped. ”Tersa, why are you at the Keep?”

Smiling, Tersa walked across the room and held out a thick envelope. ”I came to give you this.”

Even before he took the envelope, he knew who it was from. Sylvia always added a drop of lavender oil to her wax seal.

Laying one hand on his shoulder, Tersa kissed him on the lips—a lingering kiss that surprised him.

Worried him.

She stepped back. ”That was the other part of the message.” She was almost at the door before he gathered his wits.

”Tersa, this can’t be the only reason you traveled to the Keep.”

”No?” she said, looking puzzled. Then, ”No, it wasn’t.”

He waited. She said nothing.

”Darling,” he prodded gently, ”why are you here?”

Her eyes cleared, and he felt certain that, for the first time in all the centuries he had known her, he was seeing a glimpse of Tersa as she had been before she was broken. She was formidable—and a bit dazzling.

”I’m needed here,” she said quietly, then walked out of the room.

He stood there for several minutes, staring at the envelope in his hands. ”Show some balls, SaDiablo,”

he finally muttered as he carefully opened the envelope. ”No matter what the letter says, it isn’t the end of the world.”

It was a long letter. He read it twice before he tucked it away.

He hadn’t been able to give Sylvia more than words, but apparently, thankfully, that had been enough.

7 / Terreille

Dorothea prowled around the room. ”Armies are gathering all over Terreille, the Territories in the Shadow Realm have been attacked for weeks now by the people we had hidden in Little Terreille, and Kaeleer
still
hasn’t formally declared war.”

”That’s because Jaenelle Angelline doesn’t have the backbone to go along with her power,” Hekatah said as she carefully arranged her full-length cape. ”She’s just a mouse scurrying around in her hidey-hole while the cats gather for the feast.”

”Even a mouse will bite,” Dorothea snapped.

”This mouse won’t bite,” Hekatah replied calmly. ”She’s too emotionally squeamish to take the step that would begin a full-scale slaughter.”

Dorothea wasn’t as sure of that as Hekatah seemed to be, but Jaenelle’s sparing Alexandra’s life after the abduction failed certainly seemed to indicate a lack of the proper temperament.
She
certainly wouldn’t have spared the bitch. That lack in Jaenelle was in their favor, but... ”You seem to be forgetting that the High Lord has fangs and isn’t the least bit squeamish about using them.”

”I forget nothing where Saetan is concerned,” Hekatah snarled. ”His honor hobbles him, just as it always has, and his own emotional failings will muzzle him. With the right persuasion, he’ll tuck his tail between his legs and submit to whatever we require of him.”

She hoped that rotting sack of bones was right. They
had
to eliminate Saetan, Lucivar, and Daemon.

When those three were gone, the Terreillean armies would be able to destroy the Kaeleer Queens and Warlord Princes. Entire armies would be slaughtered in the process, but they
would
win the war. And then she would rule the Realms—after

she hurried the Dark Priestess to a well-deserved, and permanent, rest.

Pleased by that thought, Dorothea stopped prowling long enough to notice that Hekatah was preparing to go out. ”Where are you going?”

Hekatah smiled malevolently. ”To Kaeleer. It’s time to collect the first part of the bait that will give us control of Jaenelle Angelline.”

8 / Kaeleer

Finally admitted to Jaenelle’s sitting room, Andulvar studied her and thought of several things he’d like to do to Daemon Sadi. Damn it, the man was her Consort and should have been taking care of her. She was far too thin, and the skin under her eyes was faintly bruised from exhaustion. And there was a queer, almost desperate glitter in her eyes.

”Prince Yaslana,” Jaenelle said quietly.

So. It was going to be formal.

”Lady,” Andulvar replied stiffly. ”Since I’m obviously not here as your uncle, am I here as your Master of the Guard?” When she flinched, he regretted the harshness of his words. She didn’t look like she could endure too many more emotional blows.

”I—There’s something I need to tell you. And I need your help.”

He did his best to soften his tone. ”Because I’m your Master of the Guard?”

She shook her head. ”Because you’re the Demon Prince. After Saetan, you have the most authority in Hell. The demon-dead will listen to you—and follow you.”

He went to her and hugged her gently, afraid that if he held on to her the way he wanted to she would shatter. ”What is it, waif?”

She eased back just enough to look him in the eyes. ”I’ve found a way to get rid of Dorothea and Hekatah and the taint they’ve left in the Blood. But the rest of the Blood will be at risk unless the demon-dead are willing to help me.”

Thirty minutes later, Andulvar closed the sitting room door, took a couple of steps, then sagged against the wall.

Mother Night.

He didn’t doubt the plan would work. Jaenelle wouldn’t have said she could do it if she had any doubts.

But...
Mother Night.

He had fought in the last war between Terreille and Kaeleer. That war had devastated both Realms, and millions had died. And it had made no difference. They were standing on the edge of that same cliff, fighting against a greed and ambition that would simply go to ground again if it wasn’t finally, completely eliminated.

Like Mephis and Prothvar, he had known it would be futile to fight another war in the same way. Like them, he had looked around the table when the First Circle argued for a formal declaration of war and had wondered how many would still be among the living when it was over.

Jaenelle hadn’t wondered. She had
known
none of them would survive. Hell’s fire, no wonder she had been doing anything she could to keep them in the one place where they would be safe.

And now she had a
plan
that... Mother Night.

Even after she had told him, there was something about it that hadn’t felt quite
right
—as if she had glossed over something. Saetan would have known what it was, but Saetan...

She
was
right about that. The coven and the boyos would need Saetan’s wisdom and experience to mend the wounds already inflicted on Kaeleer. So he couldn’t tell his friend what Jaenelle intended to do, couldn’t take the chance that Saetan might choose to throw his strength in with the rest of them instead of staying behind. He couldn’t do that because, after everything was over, the High Lord would be needed by the living.

Ladvarian waited in the shadows until he was sure Andulvar was really gone. Then he slipped into Jaenelle’s sitting room.

She was staring out the window. He wanted to tell her it would be all right, even though he wasn’t sure it would be. Yes, he was. It
would
be all right. The kindred would not doubt. The kindred would be strong.

But he couldn’t tell her that because this was a time for fangs and claws. This was a time for killing. And they weren’t sure she would be able to kill if they told her what was going to happen afterward.

But there was something else he
had
to tell her.

Jaenelle?

There was as much sadness as pleasure in her eyes when she turned and saw him. ”What is it, little Brother?”

I have a message for you—from the Weaver of Dreams.

She went absolutely still, and he was afraid Witch might look right into him and see what he wanted to hide.

”What is the message?”

She said the triangle must stay together in order to survive. The mirror can keep the others safe, but only if they’re together.He hesitated when she just stared at him.
Who is the mirror?

”Daemon,” she replied absently. ”He’s his father’s mirror.”

She seemed lost for a moment, long enough to make him nervous.
Do you understand the message?

”No,” she said, looking very pale. ”But I’m sure I will.”

9 / Kaeleer

Luthvian heard her bedroom door open, but she continued stuffing clothes into a travel bag and didn’t turn around. Damn Eyrien pup, coming up to her room without permission. And damn Lucivar for insisting that she come to the Keep and insisting that she have an escort. She didn’t need an escort—especially not Palanar, who was barely old enough to wipe his own nose.

As she started to turn around to tell him just that, a caped figure rushed at her. Instantly, instinctively, she threw up a Red shield. A blast of Red power struck her at the same moment, preventing the shield from forming, and the figure was on her. They tumbled to the floor.

Luthvian didn’t realize she’d been knifed until the enemy yanked the blade out of her body.

Being a Healer, she knew it was bad—a killing wound.

Furious, knowing she didn’t have long, she ripped the hood off her enemy and then stared for a moment, frozen. ”You.”

Hekatah rammed the knife into Luthvian’s belly. ”Bitch,” she hissed. ”I could have made something of you. Now I’ll just turn you into carrion.”

Luthvian tried to fight, tried to scratch and claw, but her arms felt too heavy to lift. She couldn’t do anything even when Hekatah’s teeth sank into her throat and her blood fed the vile bitch.

Nothing to be done for the body, but the Self...

Gathering her strength and her rage, she channeled it into her inner barriers.

Hekatah pounded against them as she fed, pounded and pounded, trying to blast them open to finish the kill. But Luthvian hung on, letting rage form the bridge between life and death as she poured her strength into her inner barriers. Poured and poured until there was nothing left. Nothing.

At some point, the pounding stopped, and Luthvian felt a grim satisfaction that the bitch hadn’t been able to break through.

Far, far away, she felt Hekatah roll off her. Somewhere in the vague, misty distance she saw sharp nails descending toward her face.

The hand stopped before the nails touched her eyes.

”No,” Hekatah said. ”If you manage to make the transition to demon-dead, I want you to see what I do to your boy.”

Movement. The bedroom door closed. Silence.

Luthvian felt herself fading. With effort, she flexed her fingers—just a little.

Her rage had burned through the transition without her being aware of it, without Hekatah being able to sense it. She was demon-dead, but she didn’t have the strength to hold on. Her Self would soon become a whisper in the Darkness. Perhaps, someday, when it had rested and regained some strength, the Self would leave the Darkness and return to the living Realms. Perhaps.

How many times had Lucivar told her to set up warning shields around the house? And every time he’d tried, she had dismissed it with a sneer. But she’d been secretly pleased that he had tried.

It had been a test, but she had been the only one who had known that. Every time he had mentioned the shields again after she had dismissed the idea, every time he had endured her sharp tongue while he helped her in some way had been a test to prove that he cared about her.

Oh, there were times when, seeing the tightness in his face and the coolness in his eyes, she had told herself it would be the last time, the last test. The next time he mentioned the shields, she would do what he wanted so that he would know she cared about him, too.

Then the next time would come and she would want, would
need,
just one more test. One more. And one more. Always one more.

Now there would be no more tests, but her son, her fine Eyrien Warlord Prince, would never know she had loved him.

All she would have needed was an hour as one of the demon-dead. An hour to tell him. She couldn’t even leave him a message. Nothing.

No. Wait. Maybe she
could
say the most important thing, the thing that had been chewing at her ever since Surreal had lashed out at her.

She gathered everything that was left of her strength, shaped it into a bubble to hold one thought, then pushed it upward, upward, upward until it rested just outside her inner barriers.

Lucivar would find it. She knew he would.

No anchor. Nothing to hold on to. Filled with regrets tempered by one bubble of acknowledged love, she faded away and returned to the Darkness.

10 / Kaeleer

Palanar knocked reluctantly on the kitchen door. He supposed being asked to escort Lady Luthvian to the Keep was an honor, but she had made it very clear that she didn’t like Eyrien males. So he wasn’t really sure if this was Hallevar’s way of showing confidence in him or a subtle punishment for something he’d done.

He opened the door and cautiously poked his head into the kitchen. ”Lady Luthvian?”

She was there, standing near the table, staring at him. Then she smiled and said, ”No balls, little warrior?”