The Crimson League (The Herezoth Trilogy) (59 page)

“So we’ve two lovebirds in our midst. How beautiful.” Kora shook her head. “There’s no use denying it. You gave yourself away. As much as I try, Miss Porteg, I never quite overestimate your stupidity. What I can’t determine is which of you will watch the other die: perhaps he you, to allow him more time to enjoy his palace’s décor. After all, he’s been away some time.”

Lanokas, with a freshly bleeding forehead, forced himself to his feet: an accomplishment without using his bound arms. He argued, “The exterior décor says precisely this
is
my palace, and will for decades, as you failed to erase your sister’s mural. When two sorcerers cast together, a spell’s power increases, sometimes exponentially, did you know that?”

“Continue to pique me, Rexson, and your cronies will pay for your gall, not you. Believe me, I would rather converse in private. As I don’t trust military men who have just lost their captain not to take revenge on your female companions, if you understand me, I deigned to keep the women beneath my eye. That can change. I’ve no vested interest in Miss Esper’s welfare.”

Bennie, already lacking color, blanched so suddenly that Kora expected she would faint. Lanokas seethed to the point that he shook, but said nothing more. Zalski nodded his approval. “You learn quickly. I thought I’d have to remove your vocal cords like I did that one.” He pointed back to Kora. Hayden looked like he wanted to punch a wall.

So that’s what he did to me. That’s what he….

Zalski approached Bendelof, who clearly was trying to emit an aura of courage she did not feel. “You, on the other hand, have rather a thick head. I assumed you’d have the sense to keep away after your last visit. But to each his own. Welcome back.

“And this….” He moved on to Hayden. “This, General, unless I’m much mistaken, is one of the boys you have to thank for your promotion. His name escapes me, if I ever heard it.”

Argint was tapping his sword against his palm. Hayden, to Kora’s shock, rolled his eyes. He even spoke.

“I’m insignificant. I get it.”

Zalski patted his cheek. “No, no, not in the least. In fact, you just volunteered to show your friends what they have to look forward to. That’s quite significant.”

Bennie whimpered, sliding to the ground, while Zalski shoved Hayden in a chair near the door. He bound the teenager to the seat with
Lassmagico
and ordered Argint out. The general, sword still in hand, passed the sorcerer to lunge with none of the grace but all the speed of a cat. Kora understood just how right she had been to fear him in his office; his missing leg was no impediment, not at close range. With the same sword he could have used to impale her beneath his desk he slashed Zalski’s throat, so that Zalski could not scream—or cast a spell. Then he grabbed his victim by the tunic.

“You were right to or
der me out. I know why you did, and
it’s disgusting.”

Argint pushed Zalski away. The sorcerer tumbled with a groan, clutching at Hayden and toppling both the Leaguesman and the chair, which fell away as not only Hayden’s but everyone’s bonds disappeared.

Zalski, it seemed, had not carried the Lifestone on his person.

Lanokas stared at Argint, blinking stupidly, as though convinced that what he had witnessed was some kind of hallucination. Bennie clutched at Kora’s leg from the ground, trembling more than ever. Hayden scrambled away from the expanding pool of blood gushing from Zalski’s neck.

A hundred memories flashed across Kora’s mind, each in a microsecond, things she had never expected to experience again: a spring breeze, the patter of rain, her brother’s smile, her mother’s cooking. Life. A life that she only now let herself realize how much she longed to hang onto. She rubbed her throat with her newly freed hands. It pained her as much as ever. Breathing hard, supporting Bendelof, who had now stood up, she looked at Zalski’s killer and mouthed one word:
Why
?

Argint asked her, “Do you recall my reaction when you explained his obsession with the
Librette
?”

Hayden was staring at the corpse in as much disbelief as Lanokas. He said, “You told her the point was moot.”

Argint bent to wipe his sword on Zalski’s tunic. “It stopped being moot when you idiots let the spellbook fall in his hands. Frankly, if this had only to do with you four, I’d have left as he wished. God knows you deserve what comes to you, pulling a stunt like that attack. But he wouldn’t have stopped with today. There’d have been others, for years to come. No one should have power like Zalski stood to gain with that book and those stones. I’m not particularly righteous, or political, but….”

Lanokas’s voice was shaky. “Everyone draws the line somewhere.”

Argint studied the rightful king with suspicion. “You didn’t arrange to lose the book, by chance?”

“Why the hell would we arrange…? You think we’d want…? How were we to know you felt so strongly? That’s not the impression you left Kora with.” Kora shook her head, eyes wide. How could Argint even imagine she might give Zalski what he sought? She wished the man shared Malzin’s power, could touch her and discover what she could not tell him: that she had hardly slept in a week, had been fighting to keep food down ever since her reunion with Petroc.

Argint countered, “I had to feign indifference, or you might have surrendered the book. To get my aid.”

Lanokas said, “You didn’t accept my word he found the
Librette
. You’d never trust me on that topic. How did you know?”

“The spell he killed your companion with, the Duke of Crescenton’s son…. That was the one he’d been searching for, no?”

Bennie, who shouldered a greater portion of her own weight now, squeezed Kora’s hand. Lanokas confirmed Argint’s suspicion, while Hayden turned to the resident sorceress, wondering why she had not answered. “Can you still not speak?” he asked. Kora shook her head for what felt like the fiftieth time. “But why not? The bonds disappeared when he died.”

“Sorcery’s not that uniform,” said Lanokas. He glared at Zalski’s remains. “A binding spell isn’t complex. It’s also what Laskenay used to call continual magic.”

“I can’t believe she’s gone,” said Bennie. “That horrible woman, that wife of his, she fought dirty.”

Hayden cut her off. “Did you really expect Malzin to play fair?”

Lanokas held himself more stiffly, but continued without comment. “Those bonds were made of magic. Dependent on Zalski’s Lin—on his magic force,” he clarified for Bendelof, “force which disappeared with his death. The spell he cast on Kora must be stronger, or of a different type, able to persist without his Lin sustaining it.”

“So what happens now?” asked Hayden. Without looking up, Argint slid his sword back into its sheath.

“That would be the question of the hour. To avoid chaos, clearly the best option is to restore legitimacy. Restore Rexson to the throne. I believe that’s been your aim from the beginning.”

A knot formed in Kora’s chest. She forgot about her throat at the onset of the newer, sharper ache, an ache that arose as she realized she had lost three friends, what felt like three family members, in Zalski’s demise, not two. She had forgotten to count Lanokas. The tyrant’s death, which had felt like a miracle five seconds before, felt all at once to be the triumph of a lesser evil. A substantially lesser evil, it was true, so that Kora felt selfish just considering it such, but all she could dwell on was the moment she would have to leave Lanokas and….

And what? Try to find Zacry? Her mother? How, with no voice to communicate? Where would she go? No place where Kora was known would ever be safe again.

With a start, Kora realized the voice she was tuning out belonged to Lanokas himself. He was questioning Argint, at whom she chose to direct her gaze instead of—to attribute his proper title to him made her bite a finger—instead of toward the king.

“…You say I can depend on the elite guard? They won’t betray me? Betray you?”

“Not if they have nothing to gain by resisting. I suggest unquestioned amnesty for all. Forgiveness of any crime, and all debt to the state as well, to appease the commoners. It’s the only option.”

“It’s no option.” Lanokas crossed his arms. “Some of the guard broke oaths to my father. To the kingdom. Most were coerced—that’s cowardice, not treason—but others acted freely. The lot of them will be brought to trial to determine the traitors.”

“And those who took no part in the coup three years ago?”

“They have nothing to fear, if they never abused their power. But I tell you now, I’ll handpick my personal guards, and Zalski’s former henchmen will not be among their number. Every one of his elites found innocent I’ll reassign.”

Argint harrumphed, and Kora was suddenly aware he held the only weapon in their midst. “Forget that. You must. You’re four in this room, and unarmed. There are ten times your number crawling around the Palace, perhaps more. They could overpower you without sweating. The only way they’ll bow to you is if you offer amnesty.”

“I won’t be the puppet of Zalski’s guard. They’ll neither dictate my policy nor escape justice.” Lanokas gestured to the door. “There’s a kingdom of people out there screaming not just for the oppression to cease, but for vindication. They would lynch me, and rightly, if I ascended the throne without giving that to them. I would know, Argint, I lived among them for three eye-opening years. If you won’t accept my word, take that of my companions. They’re not highborn, not one of them. Zalski’s regime destroyed their lives, that’s the reason they took up arms. They may be unique in their actions, but not their sentiments.

“Zalski’s blood alone will not appease the kingdom. Nor should it. As pertains to the guard, I know you’ve worked beside those men, that you respect the majority of them. Those you speak for will have nothing to fear, not from me. I’ll trust your word. You’ve proven you deserve that faith. And I swear I’ll spill blood only for blood crimes, crimes punishable by death under the old, established code. If I maintained Zalski’s code I’d have to hang them all. Poetic justice of a sort, I admit, but…. The courts will deem lesser punishment acceptable for most. Listen to me, to let those men, and others, escape unaccountable, completely unaccountable…. Herezoth won’t have it.”

Argint raised an eyebrow. “And me?”

“As you took it on yourself to destroy Zalski’s order, I expect you’ll help me establish a new one.”

“Again, there’s that immediate problem of Malzin’s men.”

Lanokas sat on the settee, head in hands. “This is where I, I need Neslan. I need Neslan, I’m not a strategist, I…. I have to get out of the Palace, we all do. That’s the first objective. How…?”

He lifted his head, struck by an idea. “Get rope, Argint. Enough to bind our hands. You can guide us two by two to a carriage, to the stables out back, under orders to transport us to the jail. Will anyone question your authority?”

“Unlikely. Where am I to take you in reality?” Argint asked.

“The city barracks.”

“To
my
men.” Argint nodded his appreciation of the plan.

“With their number we can march on the Palace. When the elite guardsmen realize we killed Zalski, they’ll surrender without further bloodshed.”

Hayden clapped Lanokas on the shoulder. “That could work. That could honestly work. My God, we can do this.”

“Provided we make it out,” said Argint.

“Go,” Bennie urged him. “Go, please!” The general left the parlor as Lanokas bent over Zalski’s body, to search it for weapons. Bendelof dropped into a chair, still white. “I thought we were finally safe,” she said. Kora put an arm around her, shuddering at the thought of what the guard would do to the two of them without Zalski to ensure restraint.

Hayden walked over to Lanokas. “Nothing?” he asked.

Lanokas rose from his knees. “A dagger,” he said, laying it out in his hand. “I’m surprised he carried even that.” The prince drew back his leg to kick the sorcerer, but Hayden stopped him, taking the dagger.

“Neslan wouldn’t want that. Neither would Laskenay.”

“Somehow I don’t think Neslan would mind,” said Lanokas. But he spat on the corpse instead. “Damn it, I warned him! I told him not to react if she were killed.”

“He loved her,” said Bennie. “Did he love her?”

“Since he was ten. He hid it well until today. He felt he had to.” The prince kicked Zalski after all. Twice. He threw off Hayden’s restraining hand and joined Kora by the table.

“Damn him, I don’t know what he did to you. I watched him do it, and I still don’t know. Did he say he removed your vocal cords? Open your mouth.”

Kora obliged. “Damn him,” Lanokas repeated. “You need a doctor.” Kora shrugged her shoulders; she couldn’t see how a doctor would be able to do a thing for her. “And Bennie, shit! What happened to you?” Lanokas had just noticed her sliced and bloodstained vestments.

“I was stabbed. Before Zalski set off that, that light and noise. I feel weak, lost some blood, but it’s nothing serious. He healed me. I’m a bit lightheaded, but sitting helps.”

“She needs to eat something,” said Hayden. Kora sent him a look that said they all did. “She more than the rest of us.” He carried over the bread and butter tray.