The Immortal Prince (58 page)

Boots glared at him. “You're going to go along with this absurd plan?”

“I'm not ready to die.”

“Good answer,” Hawkes remarked. He turned to Boots with a questioning look. “And what about you? What's it going to be? Hidden Valley or the opportunity to discover firsthand if Crasii have souls?”

“If I go with Warlock, will I get a chance at that bastard Jaxyn, someday?”

“More than likely,” Declan agreed. “Given he's heading for Herino as we speak, there's a good chance we'll have to deal with him first.”

Slowly, almost reluctantly, Boots nodded. “Guess I'm in, then. I just have one question.”

“I'll answer it if I can.”

“This Hidden Valley of yours…is the food any good?”

The day of their departure dawned bright and blustery and brought with it news that sometime during the night, after he'd left her room, Stellan had taken his wife's advice and asked Jaxyn to accompany them to Herino and remain at court as Lebec's ambassador while they were in Torlenia.

Arkady learned of the decision at breakfast from Declan, who complimented her on her wise decision to cooperate, as well as her remarkable ability to make her husband see reason. Arkady accepted the compliment distractedly, still thinking about what Stellan had told her last night about Declan's feelings for her. If he was wasting away from unrequited love, however, he was showing no sign of it at breakfast.

Watching Jaxyn stride confidently up the barge's gangway, joking with the crew as they manhandled his luggage aboard and generally behaving as if he thought his new position at court was the best thing that had ever happened to him, she began to wonder about the wisdom of suggesting such a thing. Jaxyn's jovial demeanour worried Arkady. If they had thwarted any plans the immortal had for the Lebec Crasii, why was he so happy to be leaving?

Have I saved Glaeba from the threat of a Tide Lord with a Crasii army at his back, or let loose the fox in the chicken house?

“Are you sure this was a good idea, Declan?” she asked softly, as she and her old friend watched Jaxyn embarking from the upper deck. “The Lord of Temperance doesn't appear unduly bothered by his removal from Lebec.”

“Could be he's fairly good at hiding his true feelings.”

“They're good at everything,” Arkady said.

“Pardon?”

“Something Cayal said—after eight thousand years, you get good at everything.”

“Well, he'd know.”

Arkady didn't reply but remained at the railing of the upper deck, watching the amphibian Crasii prepare the ship for launch. More a floating palace than a sailing ship, the boat was two decks high above the gunwale and another three below, not including the holds. Painted red and gold, its cabins appointed with a level of luxury even the king envied, the ship would be their home until they reached the coast. On their way south they would stop in Herino long enough to witness Kylia's marriage to Mathu and then after the wedding they would sail to the coast where the king's own flagship awaited them, ready to take them south to Torlenia.

Across the bow of the ship was a complicated rigging system that stretched upwards through a forest of ropes and pulleys connecting the ship's main mast to the harness which currently rested in the water, but which would soon be occupied by the school of twenty-five amphibians—five deep and five abreast—who would tow the ship, riding the current and assisted by the wind. The design was unique to Glaeba, although Arkady had heard it said that the Senestrans were the ones who came up with the idea of towing sailing ships using amphibian Crasii.

She could see a few of them diving into the water near the jetty, ready to take up their position in the harness. Although magically blended with humans in the same way the felines and the canines had been, there was less human and more salamander about the amphibians. They had long tails, hanging down between their oddly proportioned legs, which finished in webbed hands and feet. Their double-lidded eyes were set in dark, shiny faces that seemed more a parody of humanity rather than a member of the same race.

“Do you think he's free yet?” Arkady asked abruptly.

“Who? Cayal? I suppose that depends on how deep he was buried and how much help Maralyce was willing to give him.”

Arkady glanced at Declan in surprise. She hadn't mentioned a word about Maralyce.

He smiled. “It wasn't a hard conclusion to jump to, Arkady. Cayal fled into the mountains and the only refuge he's likely to find there is with Maralyce.”

“Do you know the location of her mine?”

He shook his head. “Other than a general, rough idea of the area, not really. I was hoping you could fill in the details. Truth be told, finding her isn't a priority. Maralyce hasn't moved out of her lair in thousands of years. It would take something fairly spectacular to shift her now, I suspect.”

It was a fair assessment, Arkady thought. Maralyce was quite happy in her isolation and wouldn't stir out of her mine for anything trivial.

“Will Cayal come back, do you think?”

Declan smiled reassuringly. “We'll see you're protected from him.”

“That's good to know,” she said, fairly sure that if Declan knew what she was thinking he'd brand her a traitor to humanity.

“And what of the Lord of Temperance,” she asked, looking down at the main deck where Jaxyn stood talking with Stellan, who had finally come aboard and was ordering the ship to cast off. “What plans do you have to protect us all from him?”

“You'll just have to trust me on that, Arkady. Suffice to say there are plans in place and that you need know nothing about them to do what is required of you.”

Arkady looked at him in surprise, and more than a little offended. “You don't trust me enough to tell me, is that it?”

He smiled apologetically. “As you so rightly pointed out, Cayal may yet return. It would be dangerous to give you information he might find a way to extract from you.”

“Do you
expect
him to come after me?”
Tides, what kind of hopeless fool am I for hoping that he will?

And will your spies be watching me to see if he does?

“Who's to say?” Declan shrugged. “You may have intrigued him enough to catch his attention for a time, or you may be just another forgotten memory in a long life filled with countless forgotten memories. If I knew that much about the Tide Lords I'd be another step along the way to finding a way to be rid of them.”

“I'm curious, Declan, at your passion for this cause,” she remarked, watching the last of the amphibians slip into the harness and the ropes tossed aboard by the three Crasii remaining on the docks. “What did the immortals ever do to you?”

“It's a family matter.” He shrugged, as the amphibians took up the slack in the harness and began to pull the great ship from the dock.

“An immortal hurt your family?”

“An immortal is responsible for it,” he told her cryptically. “But it's nothing you need fret about. You have a royal wedding to attend and Torlenia to prepare for. For the time being you're safe from the immortals, although if you happen to stumble across Brynden or Kinta while you're in Torlenia, I'd be grateful if you'd let me know.”

“We have a long road ahead of us, I fear,” she agreed, waving to Stellan when he glanced up at her. She really wanted to yell at him. She wanted to tell him about Jaxyn, warn him away from his lethal charms, but she knew there was no point. So she waved and smiled and pretended she didn't see the threat, hoping they could think of something before the Tide returned completely and the humans of Amyrantha were lost forever.

“That we do, Arkady,” Declan Hawkes agreed.

“I know you said you know where some of the immortals are, but according to the Tarot there are twenty-two of them, aren't there?”

“Not all of them wield the sort of power Cayal and Jaxyn are capable of, fortunately,” Declan reminded her. “Some have more nuisance value than they are a threat. There's one or two who may even be considered reasonable, under the right circumstances.”

“So where are they, Declan?” Arkady asked with a frown, as Jaxyn looked up at her also with a sly, knowing smile.

“What do you mean?”

“The lesser immortals? Do we need to worry about them the way we fear the Tide Lords? Will they try seizing power on their own or will they be allying themselves with the others? Who are they?
Where
are they? Will they try to stay hidden? Will they help
us
!”

“That's what the Cabal is here for,” Declan said. “Because we have to find out.”

Short engagements were the norm in Glaeba and the crown prince's betrothal to Lady Kylia Debrell was no exception. Within three weeks of Stellan, Arkady and Jaxyn arriving in Herino, the wedding was over. Being something of a cynic, Jaxyn suspected the custom stemmed from a lack of trust rather than any inherent streak of romanticism or sentimentality in the Glaebans. Once a man had his virgin bride selected, one did their best to get the wedding over and done with while she remained in that condition.

Not that Jaxyn blamed Mathu for wanting Kylia in his bed as soon as he could manage it. She looked breathtaking in her dark blue wedding gown, her face alight with happiness, as she and Mathu danced the night away to the strains of Glaeba's finest musicians playing songs that were older than any of them realised.

Jaxyn watched the party from the balcony, smiling at Kylia's obvious delight.

I take my hat off to you, my lady. You accomplished in a couple of months what I hadn't been able to do in a year.

The ballroom was packed, as one would expect for the wedding of a crown prince. The actual wedding ceremony, conducted earlier today in the throne room with far fewer guests in attendance, had been quite dull by comparison. But the reception, to which anybody with even the slightest pretension to grandeur had managed to wrangle an invitation, was the place to be this stormy evening. Even the Caelish Ambassador—no doubt still smarting over the fact that this wedding put paid to any hopes of a union between Caelum and Glaeba—seemed to be enjoying himself.

Turning his attention from the newlyweds, Jaxyn scanned the crowd, looking for Arkady. He spied her eventually by the food tables, sipping a glass of punch while discussing the Tides knew what with that crafty old bitch, Tilly Ponting, who'd also come to Herino for the wedding. Her hair was blue today, the same shade as her ball gown, a garment with far too many frills and flounces for a woman her age. Still, nobody expected Tilly Ponting to set the standard of fashion and good taste in Herino. Not while ever she was able to tell their fortunes.

Jaxyn smiled. There was a future ahead that Tilly Ponting knew nothing of. One she would be hard-pressed to even imagine.
What will she do,
he wondered,
when the Tide Lords of her wretched Tarot begin to come to life?

Arkady leant forward and said something to Tilly that made the old woman laugh. She looked ravishing, as usual, dressed in a deep crimson gown and the Lebec family rubies gracing her long creamy neck.

What is she talking to Tilly about? The wedding? The dresses of the other women? The foolishness of some of the guests who'd drunk too much of the king's wine?

Cayal, perhaps? Her kidnapping? Or maybe her bleak future in Torlenia?

It had been awkward for Arkady since they'd arrived in the capital. The king was still convinced she was pregnant and insisted on treating her as such, a fact Jaxyn could see irked the duchess no end. There was nothing she could do about it, however. Stellan had decided to keep up the fiction for a little longer, fearing the announcement of a miscarriage might start the king worrying that Arkady was unable to carry a child to term and set him thinking about alternative ways to ensure an heir to Lebec. It was good practice for her, Jaxyn thought spitefully. Arkady and Stellan were leaving for Torlenia in two days' time and there would be no chance for her, in that restrictive and miserable place, to indulge in her academic pursuits. Torlenian women were rarely even seen in public. She certainly wouldn't be allowed the same sort of freedom she enjoyed here in Glaeba.

It still irked Jaxyn that he didn't know what had gone on between Arkady and Cayal while they were in the mountains. Logic told him something must have happened. He knew Cayal well enough to be certain of that. Yet Arkady displayed none of the symptoms of a woman pining for a missing lover, or a shred of guilt over anything she may have done.

She carried on as normal, which annoyed Jaxyn no end.

It would have been nice to think he had something on Arkady. Even better to think he might have found some leverage over Cayal.
Has he dug himself out of that cave-in yet, I wonder?
Was he on his way to Herino, even now, looking to even the score, or would he give up the fight and look for greener pastures elsewhere, now the Tide was turning and he realised Jaxyn already had his claim staked on Glaeba?

And the Tide
was
coming back. Fast.

Jaxyn could feel it swelling a little more every day. Already he had the ability to affect the elements around him, although he was a long way from commanding them yet. That sort of power only happened with the Tide at its peak. But it was rising and rising rapidly. It wouldn't be long now…a few months until they could risk revealing themselves fully, and maybe a year or two before their power was really something to inspire awe.

Trouble was, the same thing was happening to all the Tide Lords. Somewhere out there, Syrolee and Engarhod—and their dreadful offspring with them—were on the move. Brynden would be stirring out of his torpor.

And Lukys…he might reappear too, which was something even Jaxyn had reason to be wary of…

But that was in the future. Right now, Jaxyn was more interested in Arkady Desean and what might have transpired between her and the Immortal Prince.

Somewhat to his surprise, she had kept her end of the bargain, saying nothing to Stellan. Or if she had broken their confidence, he didn't believe her. The posting to Herino worried Jaxyn a little, but then he thought about it and decided she was probably trying to get him away from the Lebec Crasii and thought sending him to Herino was the safest way to do it.

Fool woman.
She had unwittingly played right into his hands. With Stellan in Torlenia, Lebec—and her duke—were of no interest to Jaxyn any longer. Jaxyn needed to be here. Needed to be close to Kylia.

Allies they might be, but he didn't trust Diala as far as he could throw her.

Jaxyn still hadn't quite got over the shock of Diala arriving unannounced at the Lebec Palace several months ago, posing as Stellan's niece. The real Kylia was dead, of course, just as the real Jaxyn Aranville was rotting in a ditch alongside a hunting trail around Darra. Neither Jaxyn nor Diala could risk their namesakes turning up at an awkward time to expose the impostors and ruin their plans.

Diala had been just as shocked to find Jaxyn in residence and after ordering the Crasii to keep their secret and several heated, albeit very guarded, exchanges late at night or on the rare occasions they could manage a moment alone, they'd eventually agreed to become allies. They'd hammered out the final details the day Arkady agreed to let them go boating alone on the lake.

You'd better make sure she comes back a virgin,
Arkady had warned him that day.

Jaxyn had almost choked. A
virgin
? Tides, this was the Minion Maker. She'd seduced more men than Arkady could count. She might be able to pass for seventeen—Diala was only nineteen, after all, when she stepped into the Eternal Flame with her sister, Arryl—but she'd been alive for the better part of nine thousand years and spent a sizeable portion of that time sleeping with anything that took her fancy.

Diala had no morals at all. Not a one. Jaxyn knew that for a fact. He was one of the first men she'd coaxed into the flames.

Poor Mathu really hadn't stood a chance.

Their agreement was simple. One of them would find a way to take the Glaeban throne, and share it with the other. Jaxyn's plan had been to remove the other contenders standing between the throne and Stellan Desean, but then Mathu arrived in Lebec and all Diala had to do was smile and flutter those long dark lashes at the boy and he was done for.

While Jaxyn admired Diala's skill, he'd known from the moment Mathu Debree stepped into the Lebec Palace dining room that Diala was going to seduce him. Getting him to marry her was a refinement that had taken Jaxyn by surprise, but he'd countered that with his unexpected posting to Herino, where he could keep an eye on her.

He smiled, remembering how annoyed she was when he informed her Stellan had appointed him Lebec's ambassador and that he would be staying here at court, after all.

If Diala thinks I'm going to let her loose in Herino as the wife of the crown prince without me there, she is sadly mistaken.

“What's so amusing?”

Jaxyn looked up to find Stellan walking toward him on the balcony, carrying a glass of wine, no doubt looking for some relief—as Jaxyn was—from the crush of people in the ballroom below them. Being in Herino had forced the cessation of any overt exchanges of affection between them, but Stellan was still convinced the two of them were lovers and that Jaxyn intended to wait here in Herino for his return from Torlenia. He'd probably have to spend the night with Stellan again before they left, just to ease the duke's mind about leaving his companion, but then he was done with Stellan Desean. Jaxyn's only interest in the Duke of Lebec now was what his impostor niece could do for him.

And what his wife had got up to with the Immortal Prince.

“I wasn't aware that I was laughing.”

“You were smirking,” Stellan informed him with a smile.

Above them, the dull rumble of thunder announced yet another storm breaking over the city.
Stellan's trip down to the coast is going to prove eventful,
Jaxyn thought idly,
if this weather doesn't let up.

“I was just thinking how happy Kylia looks.”

Stellan smiled and came to lean on the balcony next to Jaxyn, looking down over the crowded reception. “You will watch over her for me, won't you?”

“Like she was my own,” he promised.

“And don't let Mathu lead you astray. Or worse…you lead him astray.”

“I wouldn't dream of it.”

“We might only be away a few months, you know,” Stellan suggested.

Jaxyn was amused. He knew what Stellan was trying to say.
Wait for me. I won't be gone long.
The Duke of Lebec didn't understand that ship had already sailed. Any future Stellan Desean might have imagined he had with Jaxyn Aranville vanished with the first glimmerings of the returning Tide.

“How do you think Arkady will like it?”

Stellan's smile faded. “I think you already know the answer to that.”

“She may find it very interesting, you know,” Jaxyn suggested with a nasty little smile. “I hear the Imperator's Consort is always looking for fascinating companions. Perhaps your lovely wife can befriend the lady and make your job a little easier once she has her ear.”

“Arkady will do what is required of her.”

“Doesn't she always?”

Stellan frowned at him. “You owe her as much as I do, Jaxyn. She keeps your secret along with mine.”

Ah, Stellan, if only you knew how true that was.

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I suppose I'm just a little peeved, that's all. I still think I should be allowed to go with you.”

“I thought you were quite pleased to be staying here in Herino as my ambassador?”

“Only as a consolation prize,” he replied, and then added softly, “I'd rather be with you.”

Stellan kept his eyes fixed on the crowd, as aware as Jaxyn was that anybody looking up would see them. To the casual observer they appeared no more than two guests surveying the festivities from afar.

“I'll be back for you, Jaxyn,” he promised. “As soon as I can sort this business out in Torlenia. I swear.”

“I'll be here,” Jaxyn assured him.

Diala and I have a throne to take and an entire country along with it, after all.

The Tide is coming in.