SpellBreaker: First Ordinance, Book 4 (20 page)

This is the worst kind of conundrum. We're witnessing an unwritten part of history, my love, and we have no authority to do anything to help or hinder
.

Yeah
.

Li'Neruh Rath had been quite specific—that we couldn't do anything to prevent the coup from happening. Things—strange things—were clicking into place all around us, and all we could do was watch.

I wanted to curse.

Throw expensive vases and crockery at the walls.

I was a servant and wasn't allowed fits like Helsa.

"A snack is required in the drawing room," Milar made one of his sudden, unannounced appearances in the kitchen.

"Of course, Lord Chamberlain," I bobbed my head and turned toward the prep table. Tiny sandwiches, tea and cake would be prepared for Hegatt the murderer and his equally murderous offspring. The maelstrom rotated faster and its malicious, unblinking eye closed in to destroy us all.

* * *

Daris' Compound

Quin

"What do you mean it's in the palace dungeon?" Daris screeched.

She'd received mindspeech from her brother, and responded to the news by venting her frustrations aloud.

I understood perfectly what she meant.

Deris had scryed to search for that foul coffin, discovering it was guarded in Lissa's palace rather than an unprotected spot in Justis' glass castle.

What would they do to attempt to retrieve it? For perhaps the thousandth time, I cursed the Orb for taking away my mindspeech. I wanted to warn Queen Lissa.

Yes, she was powerful, but I had no doubts as to the depths of treachery Deris and Daris would plumb in order to get the thing back. Whatever it held, they wanted it badly, else they wouldn't have gone to such lengths to hide its true contents from Vardil Cayetes.

Poor Barc had lain, almost lifeless and in full view, inside the glass-topped coffin to taunt Bleek.

Those two—the Arden twins—didn't have the power to heal. If I still had wings, I'd have rustled them in disgust. Deris and Daris—they should be dead.
I
wanted them dead.

Why did the Orb want them alive?

Vardil was no longer a threat and may as well be dead. Why was it supporting the twins? I wished mightily to have a conversation with Zaria and Queen Lissa about this. Surely, one of them could make a guess at this twist of fate.

"Girl," Dorgus poked his head out of Vardil's doorway and hissed at me to hurry. Abandoning my thoughts, I rushed to bring the tray of food to him for Vardil's midday meal.

"I have no idea why they wanted to leave us with fields so overrun with snakes," Dorgus muttered as he placed the spoon in Vardil's hand, urging him to feed himself. "All Daris complains about is the snakes out in the fields. She wants them gone, when there is no way to get rid of them without calling attention to us. She says she can't get a spell to work to destroy them without destroying the crops, too."

I blinked at Dorgus for a moment.

Janis would know when the harvest would take place.

We desperately needed to make a plan when that happened, or both Alliances could be flooded with drakus seed.

Were they killing more troops with the drug by sabotaging food supplies?

What about the water and other essentials?

I hoped Director Griff understood what was vulnerable. Populations needed food and water to exist. With a Sirenali available to obsess those in charge, how many places could the drug be smuggled into, to poison the masses?

Queen Lissa had a term she used for such, although most merely frowned at her when she used it.

Terrorism
.

I was beginning to see what she meant, because I was afraid of what could happen.

"Go amuse yourself," Dorgus waved a hand, dismissing me.

I left immediately. I had no use for a weak-spined man whose only love was for his life and that of a terrible criminal, even if Vardil Cayetes was now a drooling invalid.

If either of them had been better men, I would have offered to heal.

* * *

When will crop be harvested?
I wrote hastily on a damp countertop before wiping the message away.

"Two eight-days," Janis whispered. "Daris won't go to the fields because of the snakes, so the hands will hold off harvesting as long as possible."

Where are we?
I wrote.

"They didn't tell you?" Janis wore a puzzled frown. "Oh, never mind. I can see that they wouldn't. The fools." She wiped away my finger-scribbles herself. "The jungle planet of Goor-Phin. The soil is perfect for growing certain fruits and vegetables. You see that our fruit trees were torn from the ground in order to grow this foul excrement."

I nodded once in understanding.
Snakes?
I wrote in the water.

"I've never heard of so many getting so close," she bent toward me to say. "Something is drawing them here, just in the last few days."

I went still.

I knew what drew them.

The Orb hadn't taken that gift away from me; I'd been calling for help every night before I slept, hoping someone would hear me.

The snakes had come. I merely had to take stock of all our resources and with Janis' help, figure out a way to outsmart a powerful witch before the drakus seed harvest.

Don't kill the snakes
, I wrote in the moisture before nodding to Janis and walking out of her kitchen.

* * *

BlackWing VII

Terrett

Yanzi, Berel and I were back aboard BlackWing VII. Caylon and Sal were still in charge, but there was a sadness in Caylon's eyes as he taught Jayna hand-fighting every morning.

He missed Zaria. His mate, Cleo, was now on-board and when no one watched, she brushed stray strands of black hair away from his face and wrapped her arms about his waist.

He held her as tightly as he dared—she was pregnant, just as Zaria said. It looked as if Cleo missed Zaria—someone she'd never met—almost as much as Caylon did.

I tapped my experiences into a comp-vid while staring out the window of the dining hall; I hoped to share my writing with Quin if she returned to us.

I dared not think that she wouldn't—as if that would pull the darkness around me and she'd never come home. I wrote now my memory of taking Quin's wings to Justis.

The Avii King gathered them in his arms and shut himself in his suite for two days, refusing meals and comfort of any kind.

Perhaps he, too, was terrified to consider the worst—afraid that it would pull it inevitably toward us. Better to keep hope alive and dark thoughts locked in the recesses of our minds.

"Tell me about Zaria," Cleo took a seat beside me and patted my hand.

She had long, auburn hair, dimples when she smiled and was quite beautiful. "Don't worry," she offered a lovely smile, "I have no jealousy toward her. I merely worry for Caylon, because he fought like a mighty, razor-finned fish against the pull of our M'Fiyah. I can only imagine the look on his face when he saw Zaria for the first time."

It is a tale already among the Avii,
I set my comp-vid aside and turned my full attention on Cleo
. Caylon thought to test her. Like Ilya, he thought her weak and ineffective as a bodyguard for Quin and Prince Bel Erland. He threw a knife at her, expecting to take her off guard and graze her ribs. Instead, she stopped the knife in midair between them, and left it hanging there
.

Cleo stifled a laugh. I waited for her to regain her composure before continuing.
Then
, I went on,
as the knife was still hanging there, he stepped forward to retrieve it. Zaria had heated it so hot, it burned his hand. He dropped the knife with much surprise
.

Cleo laughed aloud this time.

He held up his hand and said, "See this?" Zaria walked toward him, took his hand in hers, treated him like a child with a skinned knee and healed it immediately. I can't say for certain, but things may have changed for him then
.

"I really want to meet her. So does everyone else. I think the Saa Thalarr as a whole love her already, because she stood up to Caylon. Not many can do that." She dimpled at me.

I hope he loves you very much
, I responded.

"He does—he just doesn't like to admit it," she replied. "I'm grateful for Zaria, because Caylon and a daughter," she shook her head and laughed again.

No bows and ruffles for him?

"I figure he'll have a blade already made for her before she's born," Cleo said. "We haven't picked a name yet, because he'll want to give her something that may be less than appropriate. I'm hoping Zaria will help—that she'll see the baby and know immediately what to call her."

You want Zaria to join your family that badly?

"More than I can say," she sighed. "Caylon can be a handful, at times. It will be nice to have someone in my corner for a change, where he's concerned."

I understand, I think. He can be somewhat overbearing
.

"Take out the somewhat and you're exactly right," she laughed.

I smiled, because that's exactly what I'd thought, I'd merely attempted to soften the blow of my statement.
It is my hope that she and Gerrett will return to us very soon
, I said.
I wish to get to know both my brothers better
.

"Someday, perhaps you'll all have dinner with me—you, your brothers and Zaria," she amended. "So you can tell me about your pasts and how you've managed to survive all that."

It is a long and sad tale
, I shrugged.
Are you sure you wish to hear it? Perhaps after the baby comes
.

"That's probably a good idea. Raffian says the same thing—in case someone needs healing."

Raffian?

"Raffian Grey."

The Master Wizard?

"Yes—he's my half-brother. He comes from a very long line of Master Wizards, descended all the way from the original Grey House wizard, who married a female Larentii."

There is Larentii blood in Grey House? That is quite enlightening,
I said.

"Few knew of it, until one day, Ferrigar came, announcing that he was prepared to accept the kinship. It was his daughter, you see, long gone, of course. She separated her particles when her husband died at age one hundred twenty-nine thousand."

Ferrigar?

"Former Head of the Larentii Council—also dead. His son, Kalenegar, is now Head of the Council and also related to Grey House. He doesn't visit like his father did."

"Heads up, we have a shipwreck to investigate," Sal appeared, made his announcement and disappeared again.

"I wish I could heal while I'm pregnant," Cleo sighed. "I'll put in a call for Kevis and his father, just in case."

* * *

Le-Ath Veronis

Lissa

"Sal called me when they reached the ship," Winkler set a comp-vid on my desk. I looked up at my werewolf mate, who wasn't smiling.

He always smiled at me. There was trouble and I knew it. "What's on this?" I placed my hand over the small device.

"It's not pretty, but it's an example of what Deris and Daris are capable of, if they don't get their way."

"How did you get this?" I lifted the comp-vid and hesitated. If Winkler said it was awful, then it was going to be awful.

"Off a dead pirate. I doubt the Arden twins know this recording exists—probably a sick trophy taken by the pirate before he accidentally got dead while raiding the cargo ship. You see his friends left him behind—he no longer mattered. This," he nodded toward the comp-vid in my hand, "was found inside a hidden pocket. That's why Sal called me—to take a look."

I made a face as I switched on the comp-vid—someone had broken the code. It wasn't Joey, this time; I suspected Sal had notified Ashe, who'd given him the code after a brief examination.

"Ashe wanted this brought to me, didn't he?"

"Well, yeah," Winkler shrugged.

"Then watch it with me, in case I want to throw up," I said.

I was wrapped in Winkler's arms and crying as we watched Deris Arden destroy a fourteen-year-old boy for attempting to protect his father.

"I want Rigo and Kellik on Goor-Phin as quickly as they can get there," I hissed after wiping tears away with the heel of my hand. "I want an assessment of what's going on there immediately."

* * *

Kell

"You won't be able to teach him anything he doesn't know already," Rigo held up a hand as Kooper Griff, Director of the ASD and also a shapeshifter, handed ranos pistols to both of us.

Kooper had been prepared to give advice. Rigo told him what I wished to say—that I'd been doing this for millennia already.

The misting and mindspeech talents given to me by the Queen would only enhance what I already had.

"Then hear this," Kooper said to both of us. "A spell can't land on dispersed mist. Protect yourselves at all times."

"I thank you," I nodded to Director Griff. "The misting talent is new and much appreciated, I assure you."

"Send mindspeech to me or Lissa at any time," he grinned. "Rigo, always a pleasure," he turned to my eldest vampire child. "Kell, good to meet you," Griff added. "Get us intel as fast as you can. Rigo, do you want to transport, or shall I?"

"I will," Rigo agreed.

Until then, I didn't know that Rigo had the ability to fold space. We landed inside a safe house in Brepha, Goor-Phin's capital and largest city.

"The plantation is five hundred clicks from here," Rigo said, lifting a comp-vid from a drawer and pulling up a three-dimensional map of the planet. "They're supposed to be growing nannas, but as you know, they've likely uprooted trees to grow drakus seed."

"Where do you think they'll have set the perimeter?" I asked. "A Fifth-level will be able to place a larger perimeter than a Fourth-level."

"The plantation is quite large," Rigo observed. "Do you suppose Deris Arden could protect that much land? After all, he'll have to place a spell to fool the sat-bots orbiting the planet."