The Dead God's Due (The Eye of the Lion Saga Book 1) (15 page)

Narelki raised a hand to her
temple and massaged it as she sighed in frustration. “And
you’ve come to ask for
me
to intervene? Mei, you really
are
confused.”

“You’re his mother!
His House Elder!”

“And I have had this very
discussion with him before, for all the good it did.”

Kariana’s face lit up
with hope. “About me?”

“About anyone of some
decent birth, but he would hear none of it. And, yes, your name was
mentioned. He was quite clear that he would not even consider the
matter.”

Kariana’s face fell once
again. “But
why
?
We always had such a wonderful time together before.”

Narelki rolled her eyes.
It’s
not an act! She really is this stupid!
“I believe it was
the ‘whore’ thing.”

Kariana leapt to her feet and
hurled her disgusting rag at Narelki. It flew far wide and landed,
miraculously, in the trash bin.
How fortunate. Now even Slat
won’t have to touch
it.
“Fuck you!”

Narelki shrugged. “I
shall have to decline that offer. I prefer my partners have some
discretion.” She suppressed a scowl of disgust as Kariana
began weeping loudly once again. It wouldn’t do to alienate
her now. This was important after all, and it behooved her to
tolerate this nuisance for the moment.

Narelki felt a dull anger begin
to creep into her mind as she listened to the Empress of Nihlos
blubbering like a school girl. Even now, these long years past since
Narelki’s fall from grace, she still thought in old ways,
still looked upon such behavior as pathetic, worse than useless.
Aiul was right about Kariana. He was far too good for this creature,
whatever blood ran through her veins. Was it any wonder he refused
her?

How unfair the world was, that
a beautiful, proud, brilliant man like Aiul should be condemned to
the periphery while a toad like Kariana sat upon the throne. And for
what? Tradition? She spat upon the notion. Tradition was a crutch
for weaklings and fools.

Even as the thought occurred to
her, she felt ill, knowing the source of her own deep philosophy,
but unable to deny it. It was a part of her, even if she was no
longer a part of it.

Her anger notched higher as
Kariana prattled on. The Empress of Nihlos was on her knees,
offering Aiul the throne, and he, blinded by an infatuation for a
commoner, was fool enough to throw it all away. Why could he not see
that once he had power, he could rid himself of this creature and
take any woman he wanted? She was but a stepping stone to his
destiny!

Narelki knew all too well how
emotion could blind one to necessity, make one hesitate at a
critical moment. And such hesitation was like a loose thread on a
fine garment. Time would work at it, unravel it until there was
nothing left.

She realized that she could not
permit this to occur. She had ruined her own life with such idiocy.
Now, these long years past, she was watching history repeat itself
with Aiul, but there was a crucial difference. She had not had the
benefit of a wiser soul looking out for her. But Aiul did.

I am his mother. I must
protect him from himself.

Kariana’s trip home was
as blurry as her vision. She wasn’t quite certain just how she
managed to find her way to her private chambers, but clearly, she
had done so, as she found herself there. She had just begun to
undress when there came a knock upon the door. Kariana ground her
teeth at the intrusion. “Fuck off!” she shouted.

A woman’s voice, muffled
by the door, answered. “Kariana? At you all right?”

Kariana’s anger fled from
her in a flash. She recognized the voice, and it was an unexpected
balm for her soul. It was Marissa, her one true friend. She hurried
to the door and opened it, not bothering to cover her breasts. “Oh,
Marissa! I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was you! I’ve
had such a dreadful day! Come in.”

Marissa was a fat, mousey girl,
not the sort that anyone would call pretty, though hardly hideous.
She stood briefly in the halfway, her uncombed brown hair dangling
over her hunched shoulders, hesitant. Her eyes, magnified by
thick-lensed glasses, seemed uncertain as to whether she had heard
correctly. After a moment, she smiled, revealing crooked teeth, and
shuffled forward to embrace her friend.

“I heard terrible
things,” she sighed as she embraced Kariana. “I was so
worried about you!”

Kariana felt more tears begin
to well in her eyes. What a wonderful feeling it was to hear such
things, to feel such regard, after all she had been through. She
hugged Marissa tightly for a moment, then stepped back and took a
seat on her bed, gesturing for Marissa to follow.

Kariana felt a sharp pang of
guilt as Marissa joined her. She had always regarded the girl as a
sister, if an ugly, ungainly one. The girl moved like a zombie at
times, and Kariana had harbored any number of hateful thoughts in
her mind about her, selfish, cruel thoughts. She had often counted
on Marissa made her look so much better by comparison.
I’m
the ugly one, to think such things
.

Marissa looked at her in
silence for a moment, then spoke. “What’s wrong,
Kariana?”

Kariana opened her mouth to
speak, closed it again and swallowed hard, then opened it again. The
words began to pour from her, the stream of pain and humiliation
broken only by periods of sobbing. Marissa stroked her hair as she
told her tale, saying nothing, judging nothing.

When at last it was done,
Marissa smiled and announced: “He’s an idiot. He doesn’t
deserve you.”

“I wish I believed that.”

“You will,” Marissa
assured her. She smiled again, and reached into her pocket. “I
have something for you. Something that will help.” She handed
a small packet to Kariana.

Kariana smiled sadly as she
opened the package to expose a small cache of crystallized powder.
She licked the tip of her finger, dipped it into the powder, and put
her finger back in her mouth. The powder dissolved against her
tongue, leaving it slightly numbed. Warmth and goodness began to
seep into her troubled mind.

“Yes,” she sighed.
“I think it will.”

Marissa waited until Kariana’s
eyes were dilated and her jaw slack, then reached in her pocket
again. “Kariana, will you do me a favor?”

“Of course!”
Kariana mumbled. “Anything.”

Marissa lowered her head in a
practiced pose of shame and reticence. She threw in a bit of
fidgeting to boot. “Maybe it’s not such a good idea.”

“Don’t be silly. If
you want it, I want it. What?”

Marissa pulled at her shirt and
allowed her face to crease in a display of anger and embarrassment.
“Some of the guards….” She trailed off and let
out a tiny sob.

“What?” Kariana’s
eyes were large and concerned. “What did they do?”

Marissa lowered her voice to a
whisper. “Last time, they made me do some things while I was
waiting for you. They hurt me.”

Kariana’s face twisted in
stupefied, drug addled rage.
Good! That’s just what I need!
“Mei!
Who? Who did it! I’ll have them put to
death!”

Marissa smiled inwardly. “I
spoke to my elder about it. She wrote a death warrant, but you would
have to sign it. But I don’t know, now.”

Kariana’s eyes blazed
with righteous anger, even dulled with drugs. “I’ll sign
it twice! Do you have it with you?”

Marissa sighed in resignation
and produced a document from her pocket, silently congratulating
herself at her play.
Now she
thinks it is her idea.
Kariana snatched the paper from
Marissa, struggled to her feet, and staggered across to her desk.
She flailed about briefly for a pen, then smiled gratefully when
Marissa pulled one from her pocket and presented it to her.

“Bastards!” Kariana
hissed as she scratched her name on the document. “Scum! Elgar
take them!”

Marissa took the signed death
warrant and placed it back in her pocket, then gently guided Kariana
back to her bed.

“You should rest now,
Kariana.” Marissa stroked Kariana’s hair again as the
empress slowly settled back against her pillows. Before long,
Kariana’s breathing grew steady and deep. Shortly thereafter,
she began to snore.

Marissa pulled a blanket over
Kariana, then went back to the desk and rifled through the papers
there, but found little that she did not already know about. The
Empress was poor at keeping secrets. It was fortunate for Nihlos
that not every House was too self absorbed to monitor what this
incompetent was up to.
Without
us, the fool would have already run the city into the ground
.

Marissa took the death warrant
from her pocket and examined it. The signature was a scrawl, but
verifiable. The three names marked for death were unimportant. They
weren’t even real people, as far as Marissa knew. They would
be replaced in short order with the real ones: eighty some odd
guardsmen who knew too much for their own good.

With a self-satisfied smile,
Marissa slipped the death warrant back into her pocket and blew out
the candles. She would receive a commendation for this, she was
certain. House Prosin always took care of their own.

“This will not stand!”
Aiul roared. “Someone will die screaming for this!”

Narelki inclined her head
imperiously. “You are in the Library of Amrath. You will show
proper respect for the Great Father.”

Aiul sneered at the notion.
“The Great Father be damned!”

“I will not tolerate such
talk here. If you must have a tantrum, then there are plenty of
other rooms in this house.” She raised an arm and pointed
toward the doors. “Not
here.
This is a place of
reason
.”

Aiul regarded her with a
scathing glare, his hands clenched into fists, and said through
clenched teeth, “If you define cold blooded plotting as
‘reason’, I suppose.”

“You are testing my
patience, child.”

“And well I shall! Spare
me that insipid pose. Amrath was no stranger to rage!”

“Do not presume to
lecture me on the Great Father, whelp.”

“I dare what I wish!
Grandfather said what made all of the founders truly great was their
passion!”

Narelki felt herself tense at
this, but kept her fingers gently laced behind her back. “My
father was a
disgrace
to this House, and we will not speak of him.”

“The truth does not
change, even when spoken by enemies’.”

Narelki gave him a
condescending smile. “A ruse, quoting Amrath to me, not an
actual argument. You have yet to establish truth, regardless of the
speaker.” She raised en eyebrow. “The wisdom of Amrath
is no bomb to be lobbed into a debate without support.”

“Perhaps. But you are
twisting things here, as well. I think he would find your
whitewashing his humanity to be the gravest of insults!”

Narelki raised her eyebrows at
this. “Now you speak for the dead, eh?”

“Would the Great Father
have stood by in meek acquiescence when his family was threatened?”
Aiul stepped forward and leaned in, his wild eyes inches from her
own. “What would he have done, Mother?”

Narelki stared back at him, ice
in her eyes. “He would have mastered his rage, gathered his
thoughts, and made a rational plan. Perhaps after smashing a lamp or
two, but he would have found
focus
!”
She pushed at him hard, and he allowed it. “Because he
understood there is a time and place for all things!”

Aiul ground his teeth and took
a deep breath, then gave a great sigh. “That is so.”

She looked at him for long
moments, torn. He was so brash, so angry, so willful, but so out of
control.
Perhaps Father was
right. Perhaps we should have trained him. But, Mei, the cost if we
were wrong!

She could almost hear her
father’s response in her mind, his gravely, pompous baritone
correcting her mistakes with merciless truth. S
afety
is the creed of sheep and slaves.

She could feel the hot tears
welling behind her eyes, and she crushed the weakness down with even
hotter anger. She would not! “I am your Elder as well as your
mother. You are obliged to hear me on both counts.”

Aiul nodded and stared at the
floor, his jaw still working in his barely suppressed fury.
But
he is listening.

“The truth here is that
no harm is done--”

“Yet.”

Narelki felt her anger lunging
at its chains, and decided it would be appropriate to release it
just a bit. “I am still speaking!” she shouted. She
paused a moment for her point to sink in. “Lara is a bit worse
for wear, that is all. Do you agree?”

“I agree,” Aiul
muttered, still staring at the floor. He looked up as he found his
argument. “But as it is, she nearly lost the child. If I
hadn’t been close by, if I hadn’t driven them away when
I heard her cries, they might well have killed her.”

Narelki shrugged. “They
didn’t.”

“
This
time!
They will be back. She was targeted, Mother.”

Narelki waved the notion aside.
“Now you’re being paranoid. What proof do you have of
that? She’s a commoner. Random violence is a fact of life for
them. It’s one of the many reasons I counseled against this
whole affair.”

Aiul shook his head. “In
commoner areas, perhaps that is true, but not in the gardens of the
Cradle! Mei--!”

“Do not speak so in the
Library of Amrath”

Aiul shook his head,
frustrated. He ran a hand over his face, trying to master his anger.
After a moment, he continued, calmer but still aggressive. “This
is what irks me with you, Mother, this retooling of history. Amrath
was a Meite! They
all
were! I’m sure this chamber has heard that name from the Great
Father’s own lips many a time. It must be written at least a
thousand times in his book.” He turned toward the statue of
Amrath and clenched his hands into fists several times. “We’re
all degenerates by his way of thinking, you know. Weaklings and
wretches. He would have despised us as children, that we have words
we dare not speak.”

Narelki tightened her grip
behind her back, struggling to maintain her composure. This was not
the sort of conversation she could ever have with anyone, much less
Aiul. He couldn’t possibly understand. Better he think her a
silly prude than know the truth about her. “Be that as it may,
it is offensive to modern ears and I will not have it here. If you
want to discuss philosophy, I’ll have Slat fetch us drinks,
but I believe you have more pressing issues on your mind.”

Aiul ran a hand over his head,
still frustrated, then nodded, and he seemed to relax a bit, his
scowl softening into worry. “Aye. But I am certain of it,
Mother. Someone specifically targeted Lara.”

Narelki pursed her lips. He was
a bit too close to the truth for her liking. “I do not like
indulging paranoia, but for sake of argument, we’ll follow
that line of reasoning. Who would do such a thing?”

Aiul eyed her gravely. ”There
are several people who would prefer my marriage to Lara remain
without issue.” He held her gaze for a moment, then turned
aside, as if something had caught his eye. He walked quickly toward
the trash and bent over to examine it.

Narelki bristled with outrage.
“Are you accusing
me
?”

Aiul reached into the bin and
pulled at a scrap of cloth. He raised it slowly, a look of horror on
his face, then leapt toward her, fury in his eyes. Almost too
quickly to follow, he took a handful of her blouse and pulled her
against him, then pushed the stained piece of cloth into her face.

“No, Mother,” he
said, his voice low and menacing. “I hadn’t suspected
you until just this very moment!”

Narelki felt a chill run down
her spine. This was a dangerous situation. Aiul had always had a
temper, but this was no tantrum. He was, at least for the moment,
quite capable or murder. She cursed herself for making such a
foolish mistake. How the hell had she let that stupid whore leave
incriminating evidence? And how did Aiul even know what it was? She
dismissed the question. It was irrelevant. He knew, and it would
have to be dealt with.

It galled her that she should
actually be afraid of him. There had been a time not so long ago
when she feared no one….
No!
You will not go down that road!
That
is the way to madness!

She was determined not to let
her fear show. She chuckled slightly, the told him in an icy tone,
“If Matricide is your intent, child, then get on with it, or
release me.”
Mei! Even
now, when I should beg for mercy or forgiveness, I can’t let
go of the arrogance!

Aiul stared at her in hatred
for long moments, then shoved her away roughly, sending her
sprawling on the floor. “That would be just you, wouldn’t
it? ‘Go ahead! Kill your mother and rule House Amrath! Forget
those silly feelings and seize the opportunity!’” He
spat upon the floor. “If I were that sort of man, I’d
have married Kariana and we’d not be having this discussion,
would we?”

Narelki rose slowly to her
feet, feeling her years weighing upon her like stones. “It’s
not what you think.”

“No? Then tell me,
Mother, what is it? That wretched bitch promised me last night she
would kill Lara, just after she tore this from my shirt.” He
waved the filthy scrap of cloth like a flag. “So she came here
and the two of you cooked up some scheme, one that I foiled. How is
it not ‘that’?”

“She
was
here,” Narelki conceded. “She was a wreck, blubbering
like a child. I took her in because I thought she had been raped,
and for a bit, I thought you might have been the one responsible for
it.”

“Ah, now I’m a
rapist in your eyes?”

Narelki folder her arms across
her chest and inclined her chin. “You may have others fooled,
but I know you well, Aiul. I know just what you are capable of when
your blood is up. Even I am not safe from it.”

Aiul snorted. “Go on,
then. You’re spinning quite a tale. Let’s hear the end
of it.”

Narelki slapped him with all
her might. Aiul staggered back, a look of shock on his face along
with the bright red imprint of her palm. “There, now we are
even. And I will not tolerate that tone from you any more this
night! If you will not respect me as your mother, I
command
that you respect me as Elder of House Amrath!”

Aiul stiffened and rubbed at
his face, then lowered his eyes and nodded. “You have that
right.”

“And I have
responsibilities, as you well know. Advising House Tasinal has
always been one of the highest duties of House Amrath. It was my
duty to hear her and give her counsel as best I could.” She
shook her head in annoyance and muttered, “And for this, I am
manhandled and accused of treachery by my own son.”

Aiul sighed and looked abashed.
“Please, go on.”

Narelki was not fond of lying.
It left a foul taste in her mouth for any number of reasons, but it
was simply necessary this time. “She begged me to help her, to
use my influence to change your mind. I told her I had already
tried, and could do nothing. She blubbered a bit more, cursed, and
said something about having her own means of changing things. Then
she left.”

Aiul’s face was lit with
anger once again. “And you told me nothing?”

Narelki sighed in exasperation.
“I had no idea what she intended.”

“Oh, please, Mother, you
must have suspected. If nothing else, you could put two and two
together when I told you of the attack! And instead you’ve
tried to convince me I am paranoid!”

“Of course. I knew the
moment you mentioned it. That doesn’t mean I thought you
should know.” She shook her head sadly. “Look at you.
You’re half mad with rage. She’s the empress, damn you!
If you move against her she will kill you, and I won’t be part
of you throwing your life away. Now calm down and use your head!”

She could see the walls going
up in his mind, the darkness of black hate in his eyes. She wasn’t
getting through to him. “Aiul!”

“There is no calming
down, Mother,” he said in a dull, quiet voice. “Kariana
tried to kill my wife. I can’t just let that pass.” He
turned and began walking toward the door.

Narelki grabbed at his arm as
he passed. “Think about what you’re doing! Don’t
throw your life away over this!” But Aiul paid her no heed. He
shrugged off her grip and kept walking. He was strong, and she was
weak. If only she were still strong.
If
only….

“Aiul!” But he was
gone.

For long moments, she was
paralyzed with fear. She’d made a terrible miscalculation!
Aiul would be killed!

Calm
yourself, girl
, her father’s voice seemed to say.
Think.

“Damn you! Damn all
Meites!” Yet, now, that way was all she had to fall back on,
even if it were no longer hers. Her father’s voice softened,
became her own, hard, cold, clear.
Stop
this pathetic weakness.

She answered in her own voice,
a warbling whisper no one outside the order had ever heard, and even
then only at the end.
I can’t! It’s why I fell from
grace! Mei, it’s a thread unraveling! It’s a slow,
bleeding death!

And again, what was left of her
old self, her powerful, Meite self, answered,
Then
admit your pathetic nature. Call Maranath. He will know what to do.

Narelki tore at her hair,
furious at the very thought. Fire seemed to ignite within her once
again, a cold flame she had not felt in many years. It would not
last, she knew, but it was enough for now.

Aiul will calm. He is
furious, not insane. And if worst case, he does the unthinkable and
chokes the life out of an unsuspecting Kariana? The pathetic wretch
driving Nihlos into ruin? I have the political clout to smooth it
over. There are many who would be glad to see her dead.

Narelki felt a cruel smile
spread across her face. Things had a way of working out, in the end,
if one had the will to let events run their course.

For the moment, she had will
aplenty.

The palace of Nihlos served
both as a living space for House Tasinal and seat of the government.
As such, it was located not in the hills of the city, but in the
very center, a huge spire towering over the others. Bridges and
spans along it’s height connected it to the rest of the city
like a spider in the center of its web, lights glittering from the
stone walls like sunlight on dewdrops.

Aiul charged up the marble
steps of the main entrance two at a time. The palace gates, two
huge, rune-graven iron doors, stood open to reveal a well tended
courtyard, and beyond, the main reception hall of the palace proper,
glutted with commoners and slaves handling government business.