A Kiss of Fire: A Kiss of Magic Book 2 (23 page)

But where was her heart?

She didn’t know anymore. Was it still with her people who needed her, or was it here…with him? Her people needed her, but it was clear Sin needed her just as much.

Tears of frustration burned into her eyes as she jotted down the only thing she could think of to say. She put sealing wax on the envelope then pressed her dainty little signet ring into the wax to seal it. She slid the envelope into the ledger and closed it. She placed the ledger in the center of the desk. So if he sat there, it would be opened first. She came around the desk and joined Dendri and Mariah in the hallway. Together they walked back to her room. She entered and found her boots and cloak. She remembered the day he had given her the boots and her heart ached.

“Should I bring something more to wear? It’s a long trip and I—“

“There isn’t time,” Dendri said. “We have all the necessary supplies.” They got Mariah her walking cloak and headed out of the building toward the gardens where the horses awaited them. Panic infused her with every step. She was leaving him. She was truly leaving him.

This was for the best, she forced herself to recognize. There was too much at stake for her to waver now. There were too many people risking their lives to rescue her. Still, she could simply have them come into the court as diplomats of Saren, smooth it over so everyone remained friends.

However, that didn’t change the fact that the people of Saren needed her.

“You’re doing the right thing,” Dendri said softly to her as he walked beside her.

Of course. As an Aspano majji he was a master of the mind, able to read her thoughts even though her safeguards were pretty strong. But they had not been strong enough to protect her from an attack earlier and they certainly weren't strong enough to keep out a man of Dendri’s awesome skill.

“I would appreciate it if you left me the privacy of my mind,” she said.

“I am not in your mind. It is written all over your face,” he said quietly.

Chagrined, she reached out and squeezed an apologetic hand around his. He gave her hand a reassuring pat and then they were coming around a thick copse of trees to find five riders with three empty horses mounted and waiting for them. Dendri guided her to the first horse.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to ride astride,” he said. “There are no sidesaddles in Kilt.”

“I know. I am used to it. I will be fine. But Mariah does not know how to ride.”

“I will guide her horse. All she need do is remain in the saddle.”

“She is a smart girl. She will learn quickly,” Ariana said.

“Be prepared, my lady,” he said grimly. “There is a great deal of rough country ahead of us. We will be sore, tired and cold for the duration of this trip.”

“Not unlike the trip we took to get here. I am well aware of the discomforts that await me.”

With that he helped her into her saddle, then did the same for Mariah. Within minutes they were all riding into the wild country that was the temple’s backyard.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sin began missing her by about an hour later.

“Where is Ariana?” he asked his mother who was sitting with him. “It is late. She should be here by now.”

“Such demands you make of her, my son,” Fatima scolded. “She barely has room to breathe. Give her space. She will come back on her own.”

Sin grinned, knowing that his mother was right. But when she still had not returned by the time Fatima was ready to leave and find her bed, he called for Lindo, who came immediately.

“Find Ariana for me please,” he instructed. “She said she would walk and then take a bath. I imagine it is too dark now to be walking, so perhaps the bath or her rooms. She may have fallen asleep.”

He grinned mischievously as he thought of why she might be tired. Lindo left the room and Sin waited impatiently for his return. Or for Ariana’s. Preferably hers.

Then he heard the shout that ricocheted down the hall just outside his door. Someone was calling for guards. It was Lindo. There was no mistaking the urgency in his friend’s voice. Sin threw back his covers and grabbing for his robe he levered himself out of bed. Walking slowly to accommodate his sore body, he was frustrated by his inability to run to his companion’s side and find out what was wrong. He made it down the hall to the bath, finding the door crowded with the bodies of men.

“Move!” he commanded, his voice booming. The group of men parted and he stepped into the room just in time to see Lindo pulling Mordol’s body out from behind a planter. Sin felt a sickening feeling of dread sink onto him.

“Was he guarding her today?” he demanded of Lindo.

“Yes. He hasn’t been dead long. His body is not stiff. By the way he is without obvious injury, I’d say it wasn’t Ariana who did this. She’s not strong enough to overpower him. Not without using her natural ability…and not even then. I chose him for a reason. He is a very powerful Jadoc. Powerful enough to circumvent her natural abilities. Look, there’s a knife on the ground here.” Lindo stooped to pick it up.

“But you said there was no injury,” Sin said as panic threatened to overwhelm him. Her guard was dead…and she was gone.

She was gone.

“I want every available guard scouring the temple. If they cannot find her then I want them scouring the countryside. She can’t have gotten far. She has no horses…no help…and see if you can find Mariah. She wouldn’t leave here without her. If she has left Mariah behind then, wherever she is, it is against her will.”

“And if Mariah is gone?” Lindo asked.

He already knew the answer even before Sin said, “Then she has left willingly and is likely heading for home. We must stop her before she gets too far.”

An hour later, when neither she nor Mariah could be found he had to face the truth.

She had left him.

Sin couldn’t help the sense of utter betrayal the words left him with. After everything that had passed between them, after everything they had been coming to mean to one another, she had simply shrugged it off and left him.

Perhaps he had been imagining it all. Perhaps he had made it all up in his mind. Perhaps he had been deluding himself all along.

No! Such passion as they had shared could not be felt without leaving a mark of some kind on a soul. If she had left it was because she had felt more strongly about leaving than she had about staying. And if she left it was for the sake of her people, the one thing he knew he could not compete against. The one thing that would rip her from his arms without a second thought. But perhaps there had been a second thought, he thought hopefully. Perhaps it had not been as easy to abandon him as it seemed. Still, she had gone, and thinking she had struggled with the decision was only an exercise in comforting his wounded ego.

The people of Saren had beaten him. As surely as if they had been the victors in a war, they had beaten him. They had won in a competition against him in her heart.

He should not want a woman like that. A woman who thought of him second to something else, but he could not fault her for it. His people would mean just as much to him…only he had put her and her needs above them time and again, that was how much more he loved her. But Ariana was not used to indulging in her feelings. Over the time they had spent together, she had told him that even from a young age much had been expected of her. She had been laden with responsibility at a time when she should have been playing and learning to be a child. He too had had to grow up quickly, so he understood her in that regard. But at least he had had a childhood. Until his father had died he had been given the leeway to be young and as carefree as a Kiltian youth was able to be. Faced with overcrowding and disease, there had not been much in the way of childhood joys. But he had had them all the same.

Ariana’s father, she had told him, had given her lands and peoples to control and be responsible for at the age of twelve. She had never known anything outside of being responsible for the well-being of others. She knew nothing of what it meant to take something selfishly for herself. She did everything,
everything
, with the contentedness of others topmost in her mind.

Except for him. He realized that. He realized that her decision to become his lover had been a selfish act in her mind. She had taken for herself without regard for anyone else. What she did not understand was that when it came to matters of the heart, there should not be anything else to consider save the other person involved. At least, that was as it should be in his mind. It was why he had risked so much to have her.

As the hours wore on it was obvious they were not very likely to find her. It was also obvious she had had help of some kind. Someone had killed Mordol, and it had not been Ariana. And anyway, he did not think Ariana had it in her to kill an innocent man just for the sake of making her getaway clean. There had been someone far more cutthroat than she was capable of.

Or was he mistaken? Ariana was more than capable of making hard, unpalatable decisions; it was a fact of life for a ruler. But still he knew she would prefer to find a peaceful solution over a deadly one. He had learned that much about her at the very least.

And when they found the hoof prints in the snow of the gardens, they realized it was more than one someone. It was a large group. They were half a day behind them by the time they found the tracks in the snow, and began following them immediately in the hopes that they could catch up in daylight hours, since they had clearly been traveling in the dark of night.

And that was when it began to snow. Not a light snow, but a fast, driving snow. One that quickly obliterated the tracks they were following. Added to that was the fact that the group had ridden through many streams in order to cover their tracks. They knew what general direction they were heading in, and then suddenly they would change direction and go a way out of what should be the normal way to get to Saren as the crow flies.

And Sin was stuck at the temple, unable to ride.

When Lindo returned to the temple defeated in the middle of the next night, Sin knew they would never find her. The only thing they could do was chase after her and reach Saren right on her heels. But odds were they were on guard against just such an arrival and they would be most unwelcome if they tried. He might find himself a prisoner of a foreign court, forced to stand trial for the crimes he had committed against their ruler.

But he could not and would not give up. He could never make the trip in his current condition, the doctor having told him it would take six weeks for him to heal from the injury’s inception date. But he wasn’t about to wait that long. He would give it another week…maybe two. As soon as he no longer felt pain. Then he would travel the barren, cold landscape between there and Saren.

He thought of her out in this cold, on the run and afraid of being caught. She would be pushing herself to her exhaustive limits…all in her bid to escape him. It sickened him to think of it. To think she despised being with him that much. Had she known she would be leaving the last time they had made love? As they had eaten dinner together? Lindo had not been around at all that day, so her thoughts would have been her own. Even so, Lindo had stopped reading her thoughts long ago, when it had become obvious that she wanted to be there as opposed to her just being imprisoned there.

He had not been wrong about that. She
had
wanted to be with him.

As time wore on, as the interminableness of healing dragged out his ability to chase after her, he began to doubt even that much. Finding himself at loose ends and with no ability to vent his frustrations, he went into his study and opened his ledger to the final pages. The book fell open easily and he realized there was something pressed between the pages. He pulled out the sealed letter, turning it over and inspecting the wax seal. He recognized the imprint of Ariana’s signet instantly and ripped into the letter the moment he did.

Sin,

On the day of this letter, an attempt was made on my life. The guard Mordol was sent to kill me. The only reason I am not dead is because an agent of Saren came in at an opportune moment.

I believe that assassin was sent by the only person who would have anything to gain by my death. Your brother. I do not have proof positive of this, only my instincts. I pray that you get this warning and heed it. I do not think you are safe. If he is willing to kill me to protect his inheritance, he is not above hastening that inheritance’s arrival.

I am sorry to leave you like this. If I could have, I would have said goodbye to you. But we both know you never would have let me go willingly.

In truth, it is not easy for me to leave. Know that. Know that, if it weren’t for the needs of my people, I would have stayed.

                                                        Ariana

              Sin’s eyes were burning as he read these last lines. She would have stayed. Had it not been for her people, she would have stayed. Those words of the letter meant more to him, had greater impact on him, than the warning of his brother’s potential treachery. But to think he had endangered her life by bringing her there…oh, he had known there was the potential for danger. That was why he had had a persistent guard on her even when he had begun to trust she would not try to escape him. But she had escaped him. At the first opportunity. He had been right. Her people had meant more to her. He was torn between feeling betrayed by that fact and understanding it wholly. Rereading the letter, he walked to his study door and spoke softly to the guard standing there.

“Bring Lindo to me,” he said.

The guard nodded and hurried away to do his bidding.

Lindo arrived a short while later, and by then he had read the letter over a dozen times. He handed the letter over to Lindo and the other man read it quickly. Lindo ignored the sentiment and aimed right for what he felt was important.

“She levels a serious accusation at your brother. But can we trust the word of a Saren woman who was bent on escape? One who didn’t want to be here?”

“She wanted to be here,” Sin said sharply. “She says as much.”

“If she wanted to be here then she would have stayed,” Lindo said simply.

“It is not so simple,” he said with a sigh. “We can trust her words. If she says an attempt was made on her life, I believe her.”

“Are you…are you certain? This is your brother and heir we are talking about. She says herself she had no proof.”

“But she is also right. There is only one person who would feel threatened by her enough to order her death. Vich knew she was mine. Knew we had become lovers. Hells, we didn’t exactly hide it. He knew I had every intention of making her my wife. It was only a matter of time before she would conceive a son…”

He trailed off as he thought of all the things that might have been. If only they had been different people, this all would have been so much easier. Then again, if they had been in any way different, their passion would never have burned so brightly.

“So what do we do now?”

“Now we find out what my brother really thinks of me.”

“You want me to read his thoughts?”

“His entourage has two powerful Jadocs, one of whom rivals you. I do not know if you will be able to read him.”

“I will if we can separate him from those Jadocs. But how will we do that? Your brother is cunning. If he is thinking murderous thoughts toward you, he will not allow himself to go unprotected for even a second. Not with me present in the room.”

“I could order him separated from his Jadocs.”

“Then he would know you suspect him and he will school his thoughts.”

“I have an idea,” Sin said suddenly. “He may not expose himself to me and to you, but he will not be afraid of exposure to our mother, who has no majical ability.”

“Will your mother play along? This is her son we are talking about.”

Sin grimaced. “My mother knows the kind of man my brother is and, while she prefers not to take sides, in this she will take part. If only to prove Vich’s innocence.”

“You will tell her why then?”

“I will. She will have to bring him alone to a place where you can observe his thoughts, and she will have to ask him questions that will incite poisonous thoughts…if indeed he has any.”