The Chaos Crystal (26 page)

'Of course,' Cayal said, which prompted Declan Hawkes to open his mouth to say something. However, he never got the chance because Kentravyon elbowed him in the ribs to shut him up. Hawkes fell silent, shaking his head.

Elyssa seemed entranced by the notion, and didn't notice the exchange between the other immortals. But

then she frowned and took a step back from Cayal, shaking free of his hand. 'Tides, you want the Bedlam Stone.'

'That would help, my dear,' Kentravyon agreed cheerfully. 'Do you have it?'

She shook her head. 'No. But I know where to find

it.'

'Then we have a deal!' the older man said, stepping forward as he rubbed his hands together gleefully. 'Lead on, Elyssa. Where have you stashed it?'

Elyssa took another step back from them. 'Not so fast, Kentravyon. I haven't agreed to anything. And if you think I'm going to hand over the source of ultimate power in the universe to you three on the strength of a vague promise from a liar, a madman and a
...'
She glanced at Hawkes and shrugged.
'...
a trained
killer,
then you have another think coming.'

'It's not the source of ultimate power in the universe,' Kentravyon scoffed. 'It's a lump of polished crystal about the size of my head actually, and all it does is channel power. Tides, girl, if it was the source of ultimate power in the universe, no mere mortal would survive touching it, let alone stealing it from us.'

'But you still need it, don't you?'

'Name your price, Elyssa,' Cayal said, a little too impatiently.

'I don't know,' she said in a tone that indicated she'd begun to realise she held the upper hand in this negotiation. 'I'll have to think about it. And you'll have to convince me that what you say about changing bodies is possible, too, before I lift a finger to aid you. In the meantime, I suppose you
could
do something about Jaxyn. As a gesture of good faith.'

'You said you didn't need our help,' Hawkes reminded her.

'I've changed my mind.'

'You want us to melt the ice?' Cayal asked.

She shook her head. 'We've already thought of that. It would take too long.'

'You could break the ice, couldn't you?' Hawkes suggested. Then he added with a frown, 'Of course, when it shatters that would send every creature — human or Crasii — standing out there, into the water where they'll die within minutes if they can't get to shore before hypothermia sets in.'

Cayal glanced at Kentravyon who shrugged, apparently unconcerned about the potential body count. 'Jaxyn will know what we're up to as soon as we start drawing on the Tide.'

'Not if we do it fast enough,' Cayal said. 'The four of us together.'

'I'm not going to help you murder several thousand innocent souls as a "gesture of good faith",' Declan Hawkes announced.

'Why not?' Cayal asked. 'They're out there murdering each other at the moment.' He turned to Elyssa with a reassuring smile. 'Pay no attention to him. He's still operating under the delusion that he's mortal.'

She frowned at him. 'He's right, though. If we break the ice without warning, a lot of creatures are going to die.'

Cayal stared at her evenly. 'When all is said and done, Lyssie, do you care?'

Elyssa barely hesitated. 'No.'

Warlock wasn't surprised by her answer, but it firmed his resolve. He was done with this; done with these immortals and the intrigues of the Cabal. The very man who stood in the clearing, not twenty feet from where he was hiding — who had now joined their ranks — had recruited him to spy on Jaxyn, and then Elyssa. He'd endangered his family, and done nothing to stop the rise of the suzerain. Somewhere north of the city Warlock's mate and his pups were alone and defenceless while he was here — not saving them from their enemies, but helping them along.

And if he walked out there and exposed himself to Cayal or Declan Hawkes, he wouldn't last more than a few minutes, because Elyssa would kill him where he stood the moment one of them let it slip — either by accident or deliberate intent — that her favourite Crasii was a Scard.

But with Cayal here, Warlock realised, for a short time at least Elyssa was probably preoccupied enough for him to get away.

It took little more thought than that. Without waiting to hear the rest of their plans, and with infinite care, Warlock turned and crept backwards through the snow-covered undergrowth, away from the clearing, away from the immortals who would no longer be allowed to rule his life. As he fled, he discovered a greater sense of freedom than when the Duchess of Lebec had handed him a pardon and he'd walked away from the grim walls of the prison in Lebec.

CHAPTER 25

Stellan couldn't bear to imagine how many felines — some of them he'd probably bred and raised himself — were burned in the initial conflagration that announced the start of hostilities between Caelum and Glaeba.

He'd watched the battle from the vantage of the balcony outside the Ladies Walk of Cycrane Palace before the fires went up, but the sound of so many felines dying had driven him down here eventually, away from Syrolee and her murderous glee, Engarhod's inebriated indifference, and Queen Jilna of Caelum's inexplicable apathy. Although she'd been posturing about how old she was now and how, as heir to the throne, she should be involved in defending her country, Nyah had watched for a short time and then fled to her room, unable to bear the carnage.

Amplifying his distress even more was the news that Arkady and her father were out there on the ice with Jaxyn. The Glaeban envoy who'd delivered the formal surrender demand earlier this morning had made a point of delivering
that
message for the former Duke of Lebec. He'd had little time to wonder what Arkady's reaction might have been when she discovered he'd lied to her about her father's death, all those years ago. It was another unforgivable sin, he supposed, in a lifetime littered with them. Stellan could imagine the glee, however, with which Jaxyn had composed the demand informing his former lover that if he didn't surrender

Caelum immediately and unconditionally, Arkady would be put to death.

Tryan, of course, had laughed in the envoy's face and told him to tell Jaxyn to go ahead and murder whomever he wanted. Stellan Desean was a guest in this country and did not have the authority to surrender on Caelum's behalf, even if he was so inclined.

Fortunately, Stellan wasn't there for that particular exchange, and was relieved beyond measure that the decision had been taken from his hands. He knew that with the throne of Glaeba at stake, he couldn't let sentiment get in the way. With the decision to ignore Jaxyn's ultimatum one step removed from him, it somehow made the knowledge that he would have answered no differently, had he been given the chance, a little easier to live with.

They wouldn't let him take a direct hand in the fighting, of course — his position in Caelum was too ambiguous to allow that — but his plan to disrupt the Glaeban forces had worked devastatingly well. The oil channelled from the tar seeps onto the ice had gone undetected, as Stellan suspected it would. Jaxyn, had he been
leading
his forces rather than watching them from his decorative platform behind the front ranks with his immortal allies, Arkady and her father — assuming they hadn't been murdered on the spot when Tryan refused Jaxyn's ultimatum — might have realised the purpose of the oil-filled channels. But the Crasii who made up the bulk of his army weren't under orders to notice things like that. They'd been told to march and fight and because it was an immortal who told them to march and fight, they had no choice but to obey. No feline was going to stop along the way to wonder why there was oil on the ice.

The walls of fire that shot up when Elyssa ignited the oil-filled channels had panicked the Glaeban forces

so comprehensively that it took hours to get them back under control.

And therein lay the problem. They were under
immortal
control. A human army, or even a Crasii army commanded by humans, had a degree of free will not available to these creatures who were magically compelled to obey their masters. In a thousand years, no war had been fought like this. No battle had been engaged in living memory where the combatants didn't have the option to withdraw in the face of unthinkable carnage.

Jaxyn had numerical superiority, to be sure, and he was using it like a sledgehammer. Despite the dead, despite the burned and wounded Crasii crying out for help as their compatriots stepped over them to claw their opponents to death, the magically-compelled army just kept on coming.

It sickened Stellan to watch the slaughter. His disgust was made even worse by the knowledge their own Crasii warriors were similarly compelled. Ranee and Krydence were down there on the ice, sending rank after rank of felines into the fray — felines who had no choice but to do as their immortal masters commanded. The Caelish had human soldiers in reserve, but Stellan couldn't imagine that any mortal man with his wits about him would willingly advance into the bloodbath taking place out there on the ice, once the smoke cleared and the battle engaged.

It was easily the worst day of Stellan's life, and given some of the things he'd been through recently, that was really saying something. As the sun began to dip below the palace turrets, the battle raged on as it had relentlessly for the better part of a day, with little progress on either side. Jaxyn's forces kept corning; their own forces had somehow managed to hold them off. But they couldn't hold them off for much longer and their human reserves were already reduced by

almost a third due to desertions by sensible men who could tell a lost cause when they saw one.

'How long does Lord Krydence estimate we have before we must use the rest of the human reserves?' Stellan asked the messenger sent from the front lines to the palace. Stellan had intercepted him on the way there, in the hope of getting some intelligence not filtered through Syrolee's optimistic faith in her son's ability to prosecute a war successfully. The poor creature looked ragged, but he was here under immortal orders and probably would have scaled the outside walls of the palace to deliver his message, had he been told to do so.

'Less than an hour, your grace,' the canine informed him, shivering in the chilly wind, even though he was running to keep up with Stellan as the duke hurried through the twisting Cycrane streets toward the command post. 'Lord Krydence says that unless the Glaebans intend to stop at sunset, by midnight Cycrane will be overrun.'

'Tell Lord Krydence we understand his dilemma and will send reinforcements as soon as possible.'

Maybe,
he added silently to himself.
If
I can
convince Tryan to release the human reserves.

Stellan couldn't understand why the immortal hadn't done that yet, which was much of the reason he was on his way to the command post.

The canine bowed and ran off in the direction of Krydence. Stellan, feeling utterly helpless, shouldered his way forward through the press of human troops and wounded felines until he reached the building Tryan had chosen for his vantage to command the battle. He couldn't understand how this fight had gone on as long as it had without calling up their reserves. Their forces should have been utterly decimated long before now.

He took the steps of the wooden building two at a time, surprised to find Tryan alone on the balcony of the wharfside brothel he'd selected as his headquarters.

'Ah, Desean, come to watch the fun?'

'It's a massacre out there, my lord. Can't you do something?'

The Tide Lord shrugged. 'Do what, exactly?'

Stellan frowned; he gripped the balcony, feeling the cold seep through his leather gloves. It was even worse from here. He could smell the blood and the smoke and hear the screams of the dying. He could even make out Jaxyn's observation platform, but he was too far away to identify individuals, so he had no way of knowing if Arkady or her father were still alive. Glancing down, Stellan saw several wounded felines he'd noticed on the way here, heading back out onto the ice. 'I don't know
...
something?'

Tryan looked at Stellan oddly for a moment and then shook his head in wonder. 'Tides, you know!'

'I beg your pardon?'

'You sneaky little bastard,' the immortal said, his eyes narrowing. 'You know who we are, don't you? That's what you're asking. Not if I can think of some brilliant military tactic to save the day — you want to know if I can do something with the Tide.'

Stellan debated denying the accusation, or pretending he didn't understand. Then he realised how futile that would be. He met Tryan's eye and said evenly, 'Well, can you?'

'We
are
doing something with the Tide, Desean. Why is it, do you think, that we still have an army after almost a full day of this fighting?'

'You're helping them by using Tide magic?' Stellan asked.

The Prince Consort shook his head. 'We're bringing them back to
life
using Tide magic. Only ever works with the felines, for some reason, and you can't go on doing it indefinitely. But I believe that's where the idea that felines have more than one life comes from.'

Stellan stared at him in horror. 'You mean you're resurrecting the Crasii to make them fight?'

Tryan nodded as if it was nothing in the least bit remarkable. 'The problem, of course, is that Jaxyn's doing exactly the same thing with his felines. This could go on for days, you know, before one of us gets tired of it.'