BlackWing: First Ordinance, Book 3 (11 page)

"Fuck Sursee Caylon." I was surprised to hear those words drop from my lips. I hadn't even opened my eyes, yet.

"No. You will not fuck Sursee Caylon. I demand the honor of loving you."

Weak sunlight burned across my brain when my eyes flew open. Justis' nose was nearly touching mine. I blinked to bring his face into focus. A corner of his mouth curved into a wry smile.

"I'm afraid," I buried my head against his shoulder.

"I know," he soothed, a hand stroking gently down my side to rest on my hip. "I think I can talk you through this if you'll let me—when the time is right. Come now, you need to clean your teeth before going to breakfast. You smell like a winery."

It was my turn to smile.

* * *

I worried that Caylon would take his anger out on me during our time in his newest dojo.

He didn't. The training session was no different from any other, except that I had a pounding headache throughout most of it. As he'd said before, an enemy wouldn't care that I had a headache from drinking too much the night before. I wasn't about to complain about it, either. My lips were pressed tightly together as I forced myself to block blows.

Before we were done, Drood and his personal bodyguard arrived to watch. My headache forced me to concentrate on Caylon's teaching instead of our audience. Jayna, who trained with Sal across the room, was also under scrutiny but didn't care. Jayna's disguise had worked wonders for her—she no longer worried that she'd be ogled for the wrong reasons.

One look at Drood's face before I left to take a shower told me that Caylon was better than anyone in his employ at hand fighting. I wasn't surprised, either. Caylon was an elite warrior, who'd only met his match once.

Sal was also better than anyone Drood could bring against him. I had a feeling Justis and Lafe would also hold their own against anything Drood could throw at them. Drood was beginning to realize that.

He was also beginning to realize he might need an army against the growing threat of rebellion by those in the Second Tier. After all, there were six families in the First Tier and twenty in the Second. Third tier contained hundreds of families, but they hadn't begun the plot to destroy Drood Juffa. Drood's dark thoughts troubled me; the criminal in him was showing more and more.

I think we'll be summoned to a meeting after lunch
, I informed Kaldill in mindspeech as I walked the hall toward my suite.
The ball is coming and Drood wishes to be ready in case he's attacked
.

Then we should have a meeting at lunch
, Kaldill replied.
To discuss what we should do when Drood asks us to protect him
.

* * *

"Churg doesn't know anything," I said. "He'd be ineffective anyway."

"True—he is weak. He allows his son to make most of the family decisions, now," Caylon agreed. I blinked at him—his face was as inscrutable as it usually was, but on this matter, he agreed with me.

"What did you see about the Xilva family in Juffa's guard before he was killed?" Justis asked.

"He didn't know much—he was being paid and he imagined that he'd have a legitimate position in the Xilva family if he married into it."

"Do you believe they'd follow through and allow him to marry into the family?" Berel asked.

"I don't know. He believed it, so that's all I saw. Without seeing someone involved from the Xilvas, I can't say for sure."

"You have to understand that most of the crime families aren't native to Vic'Law," Sal observed. "The guard was from here. I find it highly unlikely that he'd be offered a place in the family."

"My question is this—if Cayetes is behind the Second Tier rebellion against the First Tier, what do they hope to gain from this?" Bel Erland spoke up.

He'd hit upon the question I wanted answered. Would those Cayetes had chosen take over everyone in the First Tier? Had he promised them that? In my wildest imaginings, I couldn't see a master criminal like Cayetes offering anything unless he were in charge, somehow. That meant he was lying to them. He'd take Vic'Law in his fist and crush it, reshaping it into something he wanted.

Second Tier stood to lose everything if they'd made a deal with that devil. Therefore, other questions popped into my head. Where was Cayetes now? Vic'Law was the only candidate Kooper had found where people had regularly come up missing, and I doubted that Cayetes had arrived on Vic'Law, yet.

Perhaps the ones doing the kidnapping on Vic'Law had a close relationship with Cayetes and had allied with him for the promise of money, elevation in status or another, unknown reason. I'd know if I saw the ones involved, but so far, that hadn't happened. As for Cayetes, somewhere, perhaps far away, people were disappearing and nobody had noticed.

"Here's the crux of the situation—do we agree to stand with Juffa or not," Caylon said.

"I say yes—for now," I responded immediately.

"Tell me why," Caylon shot back.

"Because he wants membership in the Campiaan Alliance," I said. "And in the past, he was willing to do what was necessary to get it." I didn't add that recently, Drood Juffa didn't bother to hide his darker side. If he strayed farther down that path, my mind would change about helping him.

Caylon, his dark eyes enigmatic and his face expressionless, studied me for several moments before nodding. "Very well," he agreed. "We stand with Drood Juffa—for now."

* * *

The expected meeting with Drood happened shortly after lunch; all of us were asked to follow two of his guards into his study, where extra chairs had been placed so we could sit. Even Jayna, Pellen, Jeslin and Mell were asked to come.

"I hear rumblings from time to time," Drood began. I studied him as he hesitated. He wasn't a handsome man, but he had a presence about him that drew others. On any other world, he'd be a successful politician. I imagined that if he were to study with Edden Charkisul, he could learn everything he needed or wanted to know in a short amount of time. For now, he was only concerned with keeping Vic'Law and his life intact.

"Through the years, I've had six attempts on my life," Drood continued. "Before, I never had reason to distrust any of my guards or servants—they are paid well enough not to carry tales or plot against me. That changed recently." His eyes turned to me.

"I've investigated the guard—I'm sure you understand he was killed after admitting he'd been paid to assassinate me. His connection to the Xilva family has been verified, although they lied to him about his marrying into the family."

My chin dropped in a half-nod—we'd suspected as much.

"Xilva is unaware that we know these things," Drood said. "He is the unofficial head of the Second Tier; it doesn't surprise me that he'd attempt a coup. If I find he's had dealings with Cayetes," he stopped for a moment before shaking his head.

I knew he'd kill the entire family. I didn't think they all deserved death and resolved to bargain for some of those lives.

My love, allow us to take care of that situation
, Bel Erland inserted gently in my mind. Again, he was using the gift he had to read others.

I wanted to let my shoulders sag in relief, but I didn't—that would send a signal to Drood that I preferred he didn't have. I was also beginning to understand that Bel Erland was a diplomat of the highest order, like his father and grandfather before him. I imagined that his ability to read others was something of a gift, however, and somewhat akin to what I held.

"I can accelerate your acceptance into the Second Tier, and perhaps pave your way into the First if I find any of them have a hand in this," Drood said, "if you agree to stand with me and act in the defense of my family and me should it become necessary."

"We have some stipulations," Kaldill began.

"I expected as much. Tell me." Drood steepled his fingers and waited for Kaldill to explain.

"We will only deliver a death if it is deserved."

"I agree," Drood nodded.

"We chose our servants carefully. I'd prefer to question them if they commit infraction in the future, rather than hearing they were killed outright for wandering into the wrong areas."

"Those deaths were dealt by Cardino guards," Drood acknowledged. "The information was passed to me, which, as you know, resulted in your arrests."

"We're well aware," Kaldill responded, his words dry. "Nevertheless, those were our servants, not his. I understand there was no questioning—only shooting."

"That is my understanding as well," Drood agreed. "Shall I bring in the Cardino son responsible for the raid?"

"I'd like to see him," I volunteered.

"Why?"

"To make note of whether he wishes you dead," I shrugged.

"Your wish, my command," Drood said and stood abruptly. "Come, we will sort this first, and then you will give me an answer."

* * *

Wyyld II

Lissa

"This is what's left of the ranos cannon that blasted Siriaa to atoms," Kooper led me into the locked area of a weapons warehouse. "We've checked it for the poison creatures—and didn't find anything."

"When you send your troops after something, they get serious," I said, walking toward the burned, twisted pile of metal in the center of a concrete floor.

"Hit with laser rockets," Kooper shrugged. "Didn't see us coming, I guess." He smiled then, making me realize he'd shielded the attack ship himself. I didn't care; nobody needed to worry that a ship carrying a working ranos cannon might be close enough to destroy their planet.

"We've gone over it with our best equipment, and there are no markings, fingerprints or anything else to identify the manufacturer." Kooper was angry about that, I could tell. "Metal is up to Alliance standards, so it could be had almost anywhere. The computer brain was atomized, so there's nothing to examine."

I knew what he wasn't saying—we'd both gone
Looking
for the source, and hadn't found anything. Sirenali involvement was becoming a terrible curse. I blamed plenty of dead gods for resurrecting that race and setting it free to roam. According to Caylon, too, there were cloned Sirenali on Vic'Law, which presented another set of problems.

"I don't really like supporting one criminal against another," Kooper huffed, bringing us back to a heated debate we'd already had before arriving on Wyyld II.

"It's the only solution we have," I pointed out. "Juffa is the path to all the others, and if some of them are allied with Cayetes, we need to know who and we need to know now."

"I understand that," Kooper grumped. "I just don't like that Bel has been shoved into that—he has no experience in this sort of thing."

He'd hit the sore spot with me and he knew it—Bel Erland. While Erland wasn't saying it, he was now worried that Bel was in such close proximity to the criminal who ran everything on Vic'Law.

He and I imagined that Bel would stay hidden unless they needed a warlock's talents for something. I silently cursed the Orb in all this—I felt it was in control and none of us had a clue about its intentions concerning Vic'Law.

"Caylon cursed the entire time he explained this fiasco to me," Kooper attempted to direct me away from the subject of Bel Erland. "Quin practically handed Juffa their whole reason for being on the planet to begin with."

"I know. I worry about that, too. Now tell me—why are we here again?"

"Because Cayetes is still out there, and we stole from him."

"Stole what?" At first I didn't understand. Then it hit me. We'd taken bodies away from him—bodies he intended for himself when I transferred farmers from Vogeffa II.

"He doesn't like that," Kooper said. "It's all right for him to kill or steal from everybody else, but do it to him and you're an enemy until he can make you dead."

"You think he may be building another one of these?" I jerked my head toward the remains of a ranos cannon.

"We found nothing on Vogeffa I that could manufacture that," Kooper stared at the twisted metal before shaking his head. "That means Cayetes had it built elsewhere. We have to find where it came from before he aims it at Le-Ath Veronis or New Vogeffa."

"He has no way to trace this back to me," I began.

"Where did the Avii survivors end up?" Kooper demanded. "Who's Acting Regent and watching over Harifa Edus because New Fyris is there? It's only a matter of time before he determines the truth. While you can shield Le-Ath Veronis if he fires on it, I worry greatly about Harifa Edus."

"We need to find that bastard," I hissed. For the first time in a very long time, my fangs descended and Kooper stared at my red eyes in alarm.

* * *

Vic'Law

Terrett

I keep telling myself that I can only do as much as I am able. My heart squeezes, however, when I consider where we are and Quin's involvement. Juffa sees us as a private army. If he had our willing cooperation, he had no idea what kind of army he would actually have.

Likely—that would be more power than he ever dreamed of holding. In this, too, I couldn't decipher what Quin was thinking, or whether she was merely a puppet to the Orb's whims at this point.