The Immortal Prince (45 page)

“He's not planning to make a scene when we ride out this morning, is he?”

“He won't be a problem, my lord,” she promised. I knew she was lying, but didn't know what else I could do. Silently, I cursed Jaxyn. He should have made some enquiries about the girl before hiring her. Perhaps then, he might have learned about her passionate and rebellious fiancé.

I was in no mood for passionate and rebellious fiancés, either.

“Then it's time we got moving. We've already wasted half the morning. If you've any more goodbyes to say, you have about five minutes to get them done.”

Amaleta curtsied inelegantly and hurried from the stable.

Ven was there to see us off, but the young man did nothing more than lean against the wall of the inn with a sullen glare as he watched his beloved ride away. The chill of the morning had softened into cool sunlight, the cloudless sky pale and washed out by the muted colours of winter. I led the way into the narrow village street. Jaxyn rode beside me. Amaleta came last, with Fliss perched in front of her saddle, waving to her family and the villagers who had come to see us off. The crowd was much smaller than the previous evening. Many of the villagers were out in the flax fields at this time of day. The economic necessity of earning a living outweighs even the chance to look upon a god, I suppose.

“You don't need to pay her, you know.”

I looked at Jaxyn blankly as we moved off. “What?”

“The girl. You don't actually have to pay her.”

“Why not?”

“Because to do this job right, my reluctant and squeamish old friend, you're probably going to have to kill both the nurse
and
the child,” he pointed out in a conversational tone. “When you finally get around to it, that is.”

“I wasn't the one who hired the nurse,” I reminded him. “Maybe you should kill her yourself. Just don't get any other ideas about her.”

He looked at me in surprise. “What makes you think I'd be interested in a rustic, ill-educated innkeeper's daughter?”

“Leave her be.”

“Why? Have you staked a claim already?”

“I mean it, Jaxyn.”

“And what are you going to do if I ignore you, Cayal?” Jaxyn asked. “
Kill
me? You're starting to amass a bit of a backlog, old son.”

I grinned as a much more entertaining revenge leapt to mind. “Touch Amaleta and I'll do worse than that. I'll destroy your reputation. I'll start a new religion in your name. Better yet, I'll have Brynden do it. He's good at that sort of thing. I'll have him add you to his list of worthy deities in Torlenia. I'll have him declare you the Lord of Reformed Drunks and Virgins.”

“Is there such a thing as a reformed virgin?”

“I mean it,” I threatened, really warming to the idea. “I'll have him make it a virtue to abstain from anything smelling remotely of pleasure in your name. By the time Brynden is done with you, Jaxyn, virgins the world over will be taking oaths of celibacy in your honour. You'll go down in history as the most boring immortal of them all.”

“That's cruel, Cayal.”

“Then don't cross me, Jaxyn.”

“When are you going to kill the child?”

“I don't need to kill her,” I said. “She's dying anyway.”

 

The Tide was never meant for mortals.

Until I felt the Tide around Fliss that morning, I don't think I truly understood that. But the darkness I'd seen there, the dangerous eddies, the malevolent whirlpools…they were the dangers from which immortality protected the Tide Lords. Fliss didn't have that protection.

She was mortal, vulnerable.

And the Tide was killing her.

How she'd grown this old was something of a mystery. Perhaps she hadn't waded into the Tide often enough to do any real damage. Perhaps growing up believing she had only the ability to sense the Tide rather than enter it protected her. It wasn't until the Scard attack on Arryl and Diala's caravan that she'd opened the conduit fully and now the Tide had a hold of her, it was threatening to swallow her whole.

The danger was what might happen as she drowned. A dying man will gasp for air; reach for anything, to save himself.

A child drowning in the Tide might reach for anything. Fliss might slip away, drawn under the Tide to fade away in peaceful slumber, or she might bring a mountain range down in a blind panic. I had no idea which.

I had no idea how much longer Fliss could survive the Tide or if she could resist the temptation to plunge into its depths, an act which would surely kill her and the fates alone knew how many people she'd take with her when she drowned. I had no idea if I could do anything to save her. No idea if Arryl's optimistic plan was even worth considering.

In fact, the only thing I was sure of, I decided, as we rode with Fliss chattering endlessly in front of Amaleta's saddle at the edge of my awareness, was that I had to find a way to get rid of Jaxyn before we reached Port Gallow.

Cayal's voice had grown rough from his long tale and when he stopped, it took Arkady by surprise. Although sunlight was streaming in through the cracks in the shutters she had no idea what time it was. Yawning, she stretched her shoulders, wondering if there was enough water left in the pot for another cup of tea.

Cayal must have guessed her intentions, because without being asked, he climbed to his feet and walked over to the fireplace, swung the kettle back over the coals and then began stoking up the fire.

“Did you ever find out if Fliss was your child?”

Cayal shook his head, but didn't turn to look at her. “No. Although Arryl still insists she was.”

“What abut Jaxyn?”

“What about him?”

“Where is he now?”

“Don't know.” Cayal shrugged. “Don't particularly care, either.”

“My husband has a…friend,” she said. “Named for your precious Lord of Temperance. He's rather less than temperate, too.”

“Now
there's
a good liar,” Cayal said, standing up from the fire. He stretched his shoulders and then turned and smiled at her. “Jaxyn makes even you look like a rank amateur.”

“The Tarot calls him the Lord of Temperance,” Arkady told him. “You really did have him made the patron saint of every reformed drunk and virgin on Amyrantha, then?”

Cayal nodded, looking more than a little smug. “I'm not sure if virgins the world over still take oaths of celibacy in his name, but I do know he's rather pissed off with the notion of being known as the only Tide Lord with any real morals or self-control.”

“You really do have an odd way of getting along with each other, you immortals.”

“Who wants to get along with that little prick?” Cayal snorted. “The only reason I haven't killed him long before now is because I can't.”

Arkady smiled sourly. “That's pretty much how I feel about the Jaxyn I know.”

“Maybe the name itself is a curse,” he suggested. “Didn't know I could do that, but then, Lukys often reminds me that true Tide Lords are only limited by their imaginations.”

“Jaxyn certainly is,” Arkady agreed. “Will you tell me the rest of it?”

“About Fliss and Amaleta?”

She nodded. “I'm still waiting to hear about this legendary love affair of yours.”

“It wasn't much of a love affair, Arkady.”

“So you say,” she scoffed. “But if I believe your claims of how old you are, then the story has been passed down for over six thousand years.
Something
must have happened.”

“Something did happen,” Cayal agreed. “Just not what you think.”

We reached the coast about ten days after Marivale. I'd quite deliberately kept our pace slow, to give Arryl time to get ahead of us via the overland route so she would arrive in Port Gallow before us. By then Fliss and Amaleta were firm friends and I was ready to murder Jaxyn, if only such a thing were possible. He'd made it his mission to hint at my commission to kill Fliss at every opportunity, to the point where even Amaleta had begun to ask what he meant.

You're probably wondering why, with all the power I had at my command, I didn't just magically whisk her away to safety, aren't you? Believe me, I'd thought about it. But there wasn't much point. Jaxyn can surf the Tide as well as I can and does so with far fewer scruples, and that's saying something, because I don't have many. He'd follow us, if not now, then as soon as Fliss disturbed the Tide again and then I'd bring down the wrath of all the others upon us both, and any unfortunate mortals who happened to be in a thousand-mile radius of us at the time.

In hindsight, it was a futile notion, given what I ended up doing, but I think being around Fliss affected my judgement. She made me feel noble, paternal even. I couldn't go around destroying entire civilisations on a whim while she was with me.

She thought I was nice.

I didn't have the heart to disillusion her.

No, I needed to accomplish this the hard way. No magic. No cheating. For that I needed help, and the help I enlisted was Amaleta.

Arryl was waiting for us in Port Gallow. She had arranged for a ship to take her and Fliss back to Glaeba, where she intended to hide the child at the temple until we could work out what to do with her. It was a sound plan, in theory. The one place on Amyrantha where it was nigh impossible to sense a disturbance in the Tide was in close proximity to the Eternal Flame. Of course, it meant trusting Diala, but Arryl assured me she could handle her sister and, to be honest, I couldn't think of anything better.

The problem I had now was to lose Jaxyn long enough to make him think I'd killed Fliss.

I confided as much to Amaleta when we reached Port Gallow. I suppose that's how your “great love affair” story got started. I ordered her to my room in full view of everyone present in the taproom of the inn we'd commandeered, not in the least bit concerned what they might think about my intentions. Let them believe I was having my way with yet another mortal underling. It's not the worst thing I've been accused of. Fliss wasn't there to witness the scene. She was still with Jaxyn at the livery, settling in the horses. Oddly enough, I knew she'd be safe with him. Jaxyn's entertainment came from watching me sweat over my promise to kill her, not helping me wriggle out of it by doing the job himself.

Somewhat to my surprise, Amaleta came to my room as I commanded, her head held high, displaying more courage than I've seen from grown men on a battlefield. Amaleta thought as everyone else did, I'm sure. I can't begin to imagine what she thought I was planning to do to her.

“Shall I undress?” was the first thing she said to me when she closed the door.

“If it'll help you listen better.”

“Pardon?”

“I'm not going to rape you, Amaleta. I need your help to save Fliss.”

“Save her from who?” she asked in confusion.

“Me.”

“Have you been drinking, Lord Cayal?”

She was fearless, Amaleta of Marivale.

“No. But I am supposed to kill Fliss on the orders of the Empress of the Five Realms and Lord Jaxyn is here to make sure I do. I need you to help me get Fliss to someone who can hide her, and then I need you to die.”

“Sound plan, my lord,” she agreed. “Right up to the point where I
die.
”

Like I said, Amaleta didn't lack for courage.

I smiled. “I need you to give a good impression of it. Lots of blood, weeping…cursing me for murdering a small child…that sort of thing. If you can manage to slip in an eyewitness account of my foul deed, that would be helpful. Once you've gasped your dying breath, I'll arrange to have you taken away before you actually expire and I'll heal you, at which point you may leave town, ride back to your stableboy in Marivale and live happily ever after.”

“What will happen to Fliss?”

“While you're faking your death, she'll be on a ship for Glaeba with Lady Arryl. She'll be safe at the Temple of the Tide.”

“And what if I want no part of your plan, my lord?”

“Then I will kill you where you stand, Amaleta, and find somebody who
will
help me.”

She smiled faintly. “That's a very persuasive argument, Lord Cayal.”

“You'll do it?”

Amaleta nodded. “My mother always did say I was a good actress. I suppose now we'll find out how good.”

 

Of course, getting Amaleta to help was easy. She was full of spunk and was rather keen to go on living. I still had to tell Fliss what I had planned for her and that wasn't going to be nearly as easy.

Amaleta brought her to my room the next day, while Jaxyn was downstairs eating breakfast. She left us alone and went to keep watch on the stairs. I didn't really need a lookout. I could feel Jaxyn's approach in the Tide long before I saw him if I was paying attention—which I hadn't been that day at the river ferry, which is how he managed to surprise me. But it gave Amaleta something to do while I spoke to Fliss.

“What's the matter, Cayal?” she asked as soon as we were alone. Amaleta's furtive manner must have warned her something was amiss. She'd dropped the
uncle
several days ago, although I'm not sure why.

“I have to tell you what's going to happen to you, Fliss.”

“Am I in trouble again? I haven't done anything bad, Cayal, I promise…”

“No, Fliss,” I hurried to assure her, mostly because I had no wish to deal with a distressed child. “You're not in any trouble. Lady Arryl is going to take you on a trip. She's taking you to Glaeba. To the temple where she guards the Eternal Flame.”

I filled my voice with as much enthusiasm as I could muster, hoping to make it sound like a fine old time, but Fliss wasn't convinced. “I want to stay with you.”

“You can't.”

“Why not?”

“Because,” I declared, thinking I sounded more like a real parent every day.

“Because why?”

“Because I said so.”

“It's the Tide, isn't it?” Fliss's big blue eyes glistened with unshed tears. “What if I promise never to touch it again? Could I stay with you then?”

Her question puzzled me. “Why would you even want to?”

She looked away, biting her bottom lip, and then she turned those big tear-filled eyes on me again and I could feel myself being eaten alive by guilt, just from the way she was staring at me.

I despise children.

And I'm not very good at handling them. Jaxyn was right, you know. I should have killed her at the palace. It would have saved a lot of lives and a great deal of agonising about it on my part.

“If you stay with me, Fliss, I'll kill you.”

She smiled wanly. “Don't make jokes like that, Cayal.”

“I'm not joking. Syrolee wants you dead. They all want you dead, including Uncle Jaxyn. Arryl is taking you to safety and if you don't want to go with her, that's fine. I just want you to know what the alternative is.”

She was crying uncontrollably by the time I was done, which made me feel a right bastard. I might have broken the news to her a bit more gently, I suppose, but I couldn't even think of a way to tell Medwen what had happened to her child. What was I going to say to Fliss?

She hugged me again, her thin arms squeezing me tight. “I love you, Cayal.”

“I love you too, Fliss,” I assured her, willing to say anything at that point to make her happy. I didn't see the harm in it. I truly believed Arryl would take her back to the temple in Glaeba and that proximity to the Eternal Flame would make it easier to teach Fliss enough control to stop the Tide from killing her.

It never occurred to me she meant what she said, or that she thought I meant what I said. It wasn't until it was far too late that I recalled our conversation and realised I was almost entirely to blame for what happened next.

 

There was one thing I didn't take into account in my grand deception to hide Fliss's escape from Tenacia. I forgot about Ven, Amaleta's aggrieved fiancé.

Unbeknownst to any of us, Ven had followed us to Port Gallow. News reached him quickly about the Tide Lords staying in the city and I suppose, on the heels of that, must have come the news that one of them was having his way with the servant girl in their company.

You can imagine the effect it had on him.

I had all my plans in place by then. I'd met secretly with Arryl and arranged to have Fliss delivered to her that evening. The ship was due to sail on the late tide. Amaleta was ready and had even procured a rather savage-looking dagger for me, so that I could inflict a convincing wound on her. She had enough confidence in me, apparently, to believe I would heal the wound before she died of it.

I didn't intend to kill her but she understood a fake wound would easily be discovered. Jaxyn had to see her and believe I'd killed Fliss and inflicted a fatal wound on Amaleta to be rid of them both. Once he was convinced, once Fliss was safe, I could magically undo the damage I'd done with the knife and Amaleta could be on her way home before midnight.

The plan worked, up to a point. We got Fliss aboard Arryl's ship about an hour after sunset and watched it slip its mooring lines, sliding across the dark water under the pull of the amphibious Crasii charged with seeing the ship safely through the heads.

Once I was satisfied they were out of Jaxyn's reach, I turned to Amaleta.

“Ready?”

She nodded, shivering in the cool night air. “Is it going to hurt?”

“Probably.”

“But you will fix me up afterwards…before I die?”

“I give you my word.”

She smiled trustingly. “I can see where Fliss gets her spirit from.”

I scowled at her. “Fliss isn't really my child, Amaleta. She just told you that because she felt bad about not knowing who her father is.”

“Whether she comes from your seed or not, my lord, you are the only father she has ever known. Fliss is the child of your heart, even if she's not the child of your loins.”

I had no answer for that, so I turned and headed back toward the inn without even bothering to check if Amaleta was following.

 

I stopped in the street when we reached the inn and pulled Amaleta into the lane beside me. Jaxyn was inside. Even if the noise of the party going on in the taproom didn't give him away, I could sense his presence in the Tide.

“I'll go in first,” I said in a low voice. “Give me a couple of minutes and then come in after me. Call me an evil child-killer, or something equally harsh. Just make sure it's loud and that you catch everyone's attention. You may not get to say much more before you pass out. As soon as you do, I'll have someone take you out of the taproom and then I'll come fix you up in a few minutes.”

She nodded and then took a deep breath. “I know what to do.”

I reached into my belt and withdrew the dagger. It was a wicked-looking beast with a blade near on a foot long, serrated along one side, designed to inflict as much damage as possible on its victim.

Amaleta saw my hesitation. “It'll be all right, Lord Cayal.”

Sweet of her, don't you think, to imagine I had any qualms about taking her life?

She stood on her toes and kissed me lightly on the lips and then wrapped her hands around mine on the hilt of the knife and pressed it against her blouse. “I trust you, Lord Cayal,” she whispered.

“You filthy immortal bastard!”

Out of nowhere, Ven came at us, screaming like a berserker. He must have been waiting in the darkness, watched us talking in intimate whispers, seen Amaleta kiss me and gotten entirely the wrong idea.

There was no time to tell him that, though.

He slammed into us furiously, pushing Amaleta onto that savage blade, driving it far deeper than I'd intended to go. She cried out in agony, but I don't think Ven noticed, so intent was he on getting to me.

I brushed him off like an insect as Amaleta fell. Without a thought, I threw him across the street with a wave of my arm. His skull splattered on the stone facade of the building opposite, so loud I could hear it cracking open from where I stood on the other side of the street.

I spared the young man not another thought as Jaxyn burst out of the tavern, followed by everyone else in the taproom. Killing Ven by drawing on the Tide had jerked him out of his drunken torpor, while the mortals had followed out of curiosity. He was at Amaleta's side almost before I was.

“Tides!” he exclaimed. “You've killed her!”

“Did you think I wouldn't?” I managed to ask with a calm detachment I certainly didn't feel. What I
could
feel was Amaleta's life ticking away. I'd planned to stab her
near
the heart, not through it, which meant I'd have sufficient time to heal her wound after our little charade was done. Ven had robbed me of that option. The blade had gone right through her heart, right through everything, only a rib in her back stopping it scraping on the pavement.

If I was to save Amaleta, I had to do it now, not wait until we were alone.

If I saved her, Jaxyn would know the truth.

She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. No accusations to convince Jaxyn I'd killed Fliss. No chance to show me what a good actress she was. Nothing but a burbling noise emerged from her blood-filled lungs.

I looked at Jaxyn, who was watching me expectantly. We have no telepathic ability to speak of, but I knew exactly what he was thinking. On this girl's death and my reaction to it rested the fate of Fliss.