The Crow King's Wife (48 page)

“Do you want a joke, Valor? How about
examining what I’ve done for you all without a fraction of the
gratitude that I deserve. If I were actually thinking of myself I
would be on the other side. If you haven’t noticed they happen to
be winning. They have lost a few battles, but a good deal of that
was due to my intervention. I sabotaged the Spell Hawks of Morcath.
If not for me they would have taken to the air at the Last stand in
Arovan and none of you would be alive today.” Shade paused and
shook his head at everyone in the room. “You say that Delvay
doesn’t believe in slavery? What have I been doing aside from being
a slave? I run everyone’s errands and risk my life for you
ungrateful bastards daily. I sold cattle and somehow that sin
erases every time I have saved your pathetic honorable lives. Fine.
Try to finish this without me. I wish you luck of it.” His hand
dove into his pocket with his last words and Shade threw two
storage stones to the floor in front of Jala. “Those are the bodies
of Derrick Rivasa and Grace Morcaillo. I wish you luck finding
peace with the Blights without me to control them, you will need
it. They are little more than animals.” He snarled as he dropped
down from the dais and headed for the door. “Do not seek me out for
anything in the future. This will be the last time I speak with any
of you without violence.” Shade warned as he pulled the doors open
and stepped from the room.

Neph started to move but Jala placed a hand
firmly on his arm. “Let him go. He has done enough for us in the
past to allow him escape now. If we see him in the future we will
deal with his crimes then, but for now we let him go.” Anger edged
her voice as well as grief and Zoelyn could see the glassiness of
Jala’s eyes. The High Lady was using considerable willpower to keep
her tears at bay.

Moving quickly Zoelyn slipped from the room
and started after Shade before anyone but Dray could notice she had
even been present. She broke into a run once she was far enough
away from the Great Hall and even with her haste she barely caught
up to Shade before he reached the main gates of the city. “Shade
wait!” she yelled before he could step out into the bright sunlit
day.

He paused and turned back to look at her with
the same sad smile he had worn in Grim’s room. “You shouldn’t have
chased me down Zoey.” He chided her as she drew closer.

“I don’t understand.” Zoelyn began, but fell
silent as his hand clamped down firmly on her wrist. She could feel
her curse draining his magic and life force, but he didn’t seem the
slightest bit concerned. Clenching her teeth she fought the curse
back under control and felt a moment’s regret that she hadn’t
remembered to put her gloves back on after tending to Grim. Only
the difficulty of removing the quills and stitching his wounds shut
with gloves on had prompted her to remove them at all.

“Let it drain please.” Shade said softly and
stared pointedly down at her hand. Despite her confusion Zoelyn
nodded slowly and released her hold on her curse. Shade winced
slightly but smiled in response. “My father is scrying on that
signet ring. I’ve felt his magic since the moment I touched the
ring. I wanted him to see what I said in the throne room. I have a
feeling I don’t want him to see what you are about to say
however.”

“But wouldn’t what you said in Grim’s room
contradict what you just displayed to him?” Zoelyn stammered.

“I wasn’t wearing it then. I’ve been careful
to only let him see pieces. He will assume there were stronger
wards on the sickroom and they caused the scry to fail.” Shade
explained with a sigh.

“I don’t believe you really sold those
people.” Zoelyn began and shook her head at him in frustration.
“And I don’t understand why you said all of those things in the
Great Hall. Do you not realize how much they hate you now?”

“I hope they do.” Shade mumbled and rubbed
the back of his neck with his free hand. For a moment she could see
his complete misery, but he hid it quickly. “I don’t have long to
explain. I’d rather not be here when Neph and Jala are finished
speaking. I don’t want to run into either of them right now.” Shade
said as he glanced back toward the Great Hall and sighed once more.
“When I killed Grace, I killed the last female pure Blood
Changeling. I damned my entire race to extinction with that single
attack and my life is as good as over now. There are only three
pure blood changelings left now, my father, my Uncle and myself.
The only way a pure Changeling can be born now is if one of us
chooses to live as a female and mates with one of the remaining two
males. That will never happen. There is too much hatred between us
to allow it. So we are damned to extinction because of me. Neither
my father nor my Uncle will ever forgive that, and the rest of the
world will want me dead for Matricide. I don’t regret saving Grim,
but I am not talented enough with my Changeling powers to evade my
kin. I have too many habits that will give me away if I try to
hide. The only way I can protect my friends is to make them my
enemies. If Myth thinks I still have close ties with any of them he
will use them as bait to lure me out. You have to keep Grim from
looking for me. Find some way to force him to focus on Syrah. Let
him hear every rumor of what is said about me in Delvay and don’t
correct it. Let me be remembered as a traitor please.”

“He won’t believe it any more than I did,
Shade.” Zoelyn protested. She could feel tears burning behind her
eyes and knew it wouldn’t be long before she lost her control and
was sobbing like a child. “They would have helped you fight, Shade.
You didn’t have to choose this path.”

“I thought my mother hated me my entire
life.” Shade mused quietly and the sad smile returned as he spoke.
“It wasn’t until I was desperately thinking of ways to preserve my
friends that I realized every time she pushed me away or ignored my
scraped knees she was protecting me the best way she could. She
made everyone believe she despised me so Myth wouldn’t use me
against her. I understand why she drank so much now too. I could
use a drink myself.” He chuckled bitterly and let out a harsh
breath. “It’s funny how it all makes sense when it is too late to
do anything about it.” He fell silent for a moment and shook his
head once before continuing. “I don’t even know where Myth is, and
after watching Grace fight I know how talented she was with her
Changeling powers. If she feared him enough to shun her own child,
I should be terrified. To allow my friends to help me now would be
condemning them to share my fate, and I won’t do it. I will save
Charm, and then I will deal with Myth. Once I am taken care of he
shouldn’t bother with anyone here beyond his pursuit of this stupid
war. It won’t be personal once I’m gone. I know how he is with
personal grievances and I’d rather no one else face that.” He
tilted his head upwards as he spoke and cleared his throat huskily
before looking back down at her. “Good-bye Zoey, and good luck. I
hope you get things sorted out with Seth, or Dray, or whatever
makes you happy. You should find happiness soon. You never know
when Fate is going to spit in your face.” He whispered then pulled
his hand free of hers and turned toward the gate once more. “It’s
nice to know at least one person in this damn city can see my
worth, but your groveling isn’t enough to keep me here so save it
for someone stupider than me.” He snarled as he stormed from the
city toward his waiting Spell Hawk.

“And everyone says you are a terrible liar.
My how you have them all fooled.” Zoelyn whispered as she turned
back toward the great hall. The knots in her stomach were gone
replaced by a strange hollow feeling and a tight throat. She knew
Shade believed he was doing what was best, but she didn’t see any
way this could end well. He was facing a point in his life where he
needed his friends more than anything else, and he had chosen to
face it alone. “The Aspects keep you well Shade Morcaillo. I will
pray for you nightly.” She promised in the same hushed voice and
kept her steps slow enough to give herself time to force back the
worst of her grief before she entered the hall. It was better if no
one realized she had even seen Shade’s speech let alone spoken with
him.

Dray would be the only one she would have to
explain anything to that way, and she wasn’t even sure what she
could say to him. Shade had sacrificed everything in his life for
his friends, and now he was sacrificing his life as well, and
somehow she was supposed to keep that knowledge buried in her own
heart while she listened to everyone around her scorn him. It was
the kind of secret that would sit like a lead weight in her mind,
and she had no idea how she was going to deal with it, especially
when Shade died because of her silence.

* * *

“Are you paying attention to me at all,
Zoey?” Neph snapped and Zoelyn turned away from her window to gaze
at her brother in confusion. Her attention had been so focused on
the outer city that she hadn’t even heard him speak.

Her room was one of the few in the inner city
that actually had a window to the outside world and she wondered if
anyone else even realized the entire outer city was covered in
crows. She had forced herself not to think about Seth after seeing
him in Rivana. She didn’t want to remember how he had looked when
Finn had taken him back to the Darklands, but the crows outside her
window had forced the memory back to the surface.

She doubted if anyone else in Delvay would
realize what it meant, but she couldn’t help but be reminded of an
old story from Glis every time she looked at the birds. If she was
right the next part of the story would be the appearance of a
spirit, and then the disappearance of her people would follow.
Silently she prayed she wasn’t right and she wasn’t witnessing the
first part of
The Crow King’s Wife
being displayed outside
her window

“I’ll take that glazed look as a no.” Neph
said dryly and shook his head at her in mild reproach. “I asked you
if Grim has woken yet. It’s been three days and I haven’t heard any
mention of him being on his feet. Was the damage he suffered
permanent?”

Zoelyn shook her head slowly and sank into a
chair by the wall. “Jala healed him before she left, but I asked
her to make sure he rested a few days more. I need time to sort
things out before he wakes. I don’t know what to tell him about
Shade.” She felt bile rise in her throat as she spoke and turned
her gaze back out the window before Neph could see the expression
of grief on her face. After everything Shade had said in the Great
Hall no one in the city would understand why she was grieving over
his absence.

“Tell him that Shade is a backstabbing little
wretch and be done with it. You can’t keep Grim like an invalid to
spare him the truth of the matter. I know he considered Shade a
friend. We all did and Shade spit our faces with his actions.” Neph
snapped with obvious irritation.

“Maybe I should let you explain it.” Zoelyn
mumbled, though she had no intention of letting Neph be the first
to speak with Grim when he awoke. If Neph explained what was going
on it would end in blood and she knew it.

“Perhaps I will, but it’s something I will
worry about later. I came here to fetch you for other reasons.
There are a few things I need to explain to you, but it will be
easier if I just show them to you instead.”

The tone of his voice drew her attention back
to him once more and Zoelyn frowned at the look of hesitation on
Neph’s face. He was nervous about something, and she couldn’t
decide what it would take to make Neph nervous. Her brother was
usually either calm or angry, she rarely saw him in any other
mood.

“Show me what?” she asked cautiously and her
imagination immediately supplied her with images of Shade’s broken
corpse. It was possible that Neph had ignored Jala’s request to
leave Shade be for now and gone after him. Shaking her head she
cleared the image from her mind and let out a sigh. It was a silly
thought. She knew Neph hadn’t left the city.

“As I said, it’s easier to show you than tell
you. Come to my room for a moment and you will understand what I
mean.” Neph sighed and turned for the door.

Numbly Zoelyn rose to her feet and followed
him. She didn’t want to follow him. She hadn’t been sleeping well
and exhaustion was dogging her heels almost as badly as the curse
was gnawing at her gut. No matter how many mage stones she consumed
it didn’t seem to quench the hunger. Her curiosity was too much for
her to ignore his words despite her discomfort though. It was too
unusual for Neph to act so mysterious about anything. He was
usually painfully blunt on everything and rarely saw the need to
dance around any topic no matter how painful it might be.

Neph moved in silence all the way down the
stairs and only glanced at her once as he paused outside his door.
“I’m not sure how you will react to this. I didn’t handle it well
myself.” He warned her in a low voice as he pushed the door open
slowly.

Zoelyn gazed at him with concern then slowly
stepped inside the room and froze at the sight of the woman sitting
across the room. She was an exact duplicate of the painting on the
wall above her with the exception of the worried look that pinched
her delicate features. “Momma.” Zoelyn gasped and quickly grabbed
the door frame as her knees wobbled beneath her.

Cora rose from her chair and waved a hand
toward her quickly. “Neph help her to a chair. I think she might
faint.” She ordered with concern thick in her voice.

Zoelyn felt a solid arm brace her and could
only stare at her mother as Neph guided her quickly to the small
table. Cora paced beside them murmuring in worried tones until
Zoelyn was seated then smiled sheepishly down at her.

“I’m so sorry love. I didn’t know how you
would react to seeing me, but we couldn’t think of a better way to
approach you.” Cora explained as she lowered herself to the chair
across from her.