The Dead God's Due (The Eye of the Lion Saga Book 1) (19 page)

Kariana seemed to suddenly
understand as he approached. She drew a dagger from her robes and
brandished it at him.“Don’t do this, Aiul!” she
shouted, her voice high and full of fear, but defiant nonetheless.

“Lara might have begged
similarly, had I not been there!”

“It wasn’t me!”

“Own your sins, bitch!
You’ll be accounting for them soon!”

“There are things you
don’t know! Things I can’t tell you! Damn you, Aiul, I
love
you!”

Aiul’s temples throbbed
as if the jagged thing were bashing the inside of his skull with a
hammer. Her arrogance was inconceivable! How could she lie to his
face now, when she had told him exactly what she intended to do not
a day before? How could she be such a monster as to claim to love
him? She would do anything to save her miserable skin. “Save
your lies for Elgar!”

Kariana’s ears perked up
as the sound of approaching soldiers echoed through the room. “I
offered you everything! And you bring enemies into my home to murder
me! Elgar take
you
,
monster!”

“’Ware
reinforcements!” shouted one of the Southlanders, and the
heavy double doors shuddered with a heavy impact. The Southlanders
stood ready, waiting for the door to give way.

Aiul turned, distracted for
only a moment, but that was all Kariana needed. She lunged at him
with her knife, aiming for his throat. He managed to spin at the
last moment, catching the blade in his shoulder instead, not a
lethal blow, but enough to stagger him briefly.

Kariana ducked behind the bed
and twisted a wall sconce. With a whoosh of inrushing air, a
concealed section of wall slid back, and she vanished into the
darkness beyond.

Aiul cursed silently, torn
between giving chase and making a final stand with the Southlanders.
He should have expected something like this. Tasinal would have
taken care of his own just as Amrath had.

Sandilianus spared him the
decision. “Go after her!” he shouted. “We will
hold them as long as we can!”

The battering ram struck the
doors again, and debris imploded inward. It would hold another blow
or two, perhaps three, but no more.

Aiul nodded and leapt onto the
bed to follow Kariana.

The passage was cramped, musty,
and dark, and the ceiling was quite low, forcing him to stoop as he
entered the passageway. Some fifty feet ahead, he could see Kariana,
stumbling and cursing as she fled, and beyond her, a dim light
source. It was impossible to judge how far away the light might be,
but he was certain that it was an exit, one he could not allow her
to reach.

It took him a moment and a few
painful collisions of his head against the ceiling, but he quickly
adopted a shambling, lurching stance that allowed him to make good
time. Kariana was less adaptable. She cursed and stumbled along,
keeping her left hand low and against the stone wall, as if she
feared becoming lost.

Aiul gradually closed the
distance, until at last he could hear her panting almost as loud as
his own. She spared a look backward at him as he neared, her eyes
wide and fearful, but defiant. She did her best to quicken her pace
as he approached, but she was hampered by her stance, still keeping
her hand against the wall.

He was almost upon her. He
reached toward her, as he struggled to close the last few feet
between them, and suddenly, Kariana lurched to a stop, her body
straining forward and tacking to the left with her momentum. Her
hand remained anchored in place, clutched about a small, innocuous
lever that protruded from the cold, wet stone. It moved slightly,
turning as she hauled on it with all her weight, and a sharp click
echoed through the passageway.

There was no time to react,
though it seemed to Aiul that what followed was painfully slow. He
felt the wispy, ethereal surge of powerful sorcery wash over him,
almost a sound, not quite a breeze, and the tunnel before him melted
and twisted in the current. The stone gathered and massed like a
wave of liquid rock, its base rising and pushing him backward as it
crested and curled over, threatening to crash down upon him and
crush him as easy a real wave might shatter a sandcastle.

Aiul fell to the ground and
gritted his teeth, steeling himself against an impact that never
came. The flow of sorcery trickled off into the ether, leaving in
its wake an impassable barrier of stone.

Behind him, he heard the
muffled sound of a pitched battle, steel ringing against steel, and
men crying out in rage and pain. He looked back to see that another
barrier, like the one before him, had erected itself to block his
retreat.

He sat there in his newly
formed prison, silent but for panting. He could hear Kariana gasping
on the other side as well.

“Idiot,” she said
in a dull, emotionless voice. ”Didn’t you think I would
have an escape plan?”

“”Don’t
strain your arm patting yourself on the back.
Tasinal
had an escape plan. Your possession of it is just an accident of
birth.”

Kariana snorted. “Touche’.
I’m a stupid whore, a fool ruining Nihlos, a murderess, a
child. But I beat you.”

Aiul sighed in the darkness.
So
close. So very close.
He listened to the distant sounds
of battle, wondering how long the Southlanders would hold out. At
least, he imagined, they would make a nice reckoning of themselves
before they fell, and that was all they had asked for.

“It’s not over,”
he told her, his words mechanical, his muscles feeling leaden as
numbness began to creep over him.

“No,” she said, her
voice almost a whisper. “It never even started, did it?”
To Aiul’s surprise, she began sobbing softly in the darkness.

Aiul closed his eyes, awaiting
the inevitable.

Kariana sat alone in her room,
trying to find a way to live with what had passed and what had to be
done about it. She considered sending for Sadrik, but decided
against it. She had been through quite enough abuse for one day.

The guards had taken Aiul away
in chains. Only one of the Southlanders had survived. There was
blood and gore all over the ballroom. She had to admit, it would
have been a fine show had she not been the target. Perhaps instead
of orgies, she would prefer gladiators, at least on occasion. W
e
might even be able to combine the two.

There was no question about how
this must be resolved. She could not allow an assassin to strike at
her and live. Both Aiul and the surviving Southlander would have to
die in a very public manner. There was no way around it. It was what
Nihlos would demand.

And did it even matter? He felt
nothing for her. He wanted her dead. The thought of it was like a
sharp piece of rusty metal being shoved into her gut and twisted.
She could almost taste it, a mouthful of copper and sand. She loved
him. She hated him.

And none of it mattered,
because she had no choices left for her, and no tears left to cry.

A knock on the door interrupted
her thoughts, and a familiar voice called out. “Kariana? Are
you okay?”

Kariana sat bolt upright in her
bed. It was Marissa! That treacherous bitch!
Mei,
she will hear the screaming inside my head. Can I lie that well?

She decided that, while she
could lie just fine, she had no desire to do so. She pulled her
pillow over her head and refused to answer, but Marissa was
persistent, and opened the door. Kariana cursed herself for being so
stupid.
Mei, you just
survived an assassination attempt! What does it take to make you
lock your door, fool?

Marissa cracked the door just
far enough to fit her head, and peeked around it. “Kariana?”

Kariana pulled the pillow over
her eyes, not wanting to see Marissa’s face. It hurt too much.
It was the same as if she were dead. All of her friends, anyone she
trusted, anyone she actually gave a damn about, all dead or soon to
be. “I don’t want to talk to anyone.”

“Oh, honey, you can talk
to me,” Marissa cooed. Kariana heard footsteps approaching,
and suppressed a shudder. What a monster Marissa was. What a cold,
mechanical thing, to feign friendship like this for so long.

I
will not look at her
. Which would have been fine, except
Marissa had always been a toucher. The bed sank slightly as Marissa
sat next to Kariana and began stroking her hair.

It was such an ordinary thing.
It had brought her great comfort before, yet now, it was as if
Marissa were rubbing shit into her hair. Her touch was repulsive
beyond anything Kariana had ever known. It was all she could do not
to retch.

“It will be okay,”
Marissa said. “Everything will be ok.”

Kariana was no longer listening
to her. The two voices in her head were drowning out everything else
with their dispute

Her old voice, the one she knew
so well, was saying,
It will
be done soon enough. Just let it happen. It’s easy.

But now there was a new voice,
an angry, shrill, cruel voice in her head as well.
It’s
unbearable! Do something!
That voice was tired of the
blame and the accusation, and was ready to deserve some of the
hatred directed at her.

I can’t! Sadrik said
not to!

Fuck Sadrik! He doesn’t
tell me what to do! This is all Marissa’s fault! She can’t
get away with it!

“I have something for
you,” Marissa said. “Do you want some water with it?”

Kariana nodded. She could feel
the cold, hardness of Sadrik’s dagger against her breast.
My
one friend.

Now!
the new voice screamed.
Now!
Now! Now!

Kariana let the pillow fall to
the floor, and reached beneath her robe to clutch her blade. She
watched as Marissa returned, one of her small packages in one hand,
a glass of water in the other.

Marissa smiled and sat beside
her again. “There you go! Hiding behind that pillow is no
good. This will make you feel lots better.”

Kariana leaned in as if to take
the glass as she pulled the dagger from her robes. Marissa regarded
her warmly as Kariana lunged forward and plunged her blade into
Marissa’s sizable belly.

Marissa’s smile vanished
as her lips formed a perfect circle of shock and pain. She blinked
several times and moaned softly as her hands fluttered toward the
blade. Kariana snatched the weapon back, and Marissa slid off the
side of the bed, clutching at her wound.

Kariana stood over her, the
hate so intense in her breast that she felt she would burst into
flames. “Bitch! Did you really think I wouldn’t find
out?”

Marissa stared up at her in
misery, breathing in short gasps. “I’m sorry, Kariana! I
had
to! They
made
me!”

“Made you?” Kariana
felt a wicked smile creep across her face as she giggled like a
girl. “What would they have done to you if you refused, I
wonder, that this is the better choice?” She flicked the blade
with her fingertips, sending droplets of blood flying. Marissa
winced as they fell on her face like rain, mixing with the tears
welling in her eyes.

“I wanted to be special,”
she sobbed. “Like you! Beautiful! Important!”

There were no words to
communicate Kariana’s wrath, yet she could not contain it. It
burst from her throat, a roar of bestial madness as she fell upon
her enemy.

Marissa raised her arms and
grappled with Kariana, struggling to defend herself. She was
considerably bulkier, but Kariana's rage made her a tigress. They
rolled across the floor, screaming, Marissa in terror, Kariana in
unbridled fury, knocking over Kariana’s vanity. Perfume
bottles rained down, exploding as they impacted the marble floor.

“Bitch!” Kariana
shrieked. “You fat fucking cow!” She slashed at Marissa
with mad abandon, at her face, her breasts, any exposed soft spot.

Marissa wailed in agony as the
blade bit into her flesh, leaving deep gashes. She rose to her
knees, desperate to escape, but Kariana knocked her flat on her
back, mounted her like a horse, and bludgeoned her head repeatedly
with the pommel of her blade.

Marissa could no longer defend
herself at all. Her head cracked against the floor with each blow.
She mumbled through shattered lips, “Stop.
Please
.”

Kariana, exhausted herself,
paused her attack. For long moments she sat astride Marissa’s
unresisting bulk, panting and gasping from her exertion. Marissa lay
still, covered in blood, eyes closed. She might have been dead save
for the occasional twitch or moan.

“I thought you were my
friend,” Kariana whispered, her vision clouding with tears.

Marissa looked up at her with
dazed, unfocused eyes. “I
am
,
Kariana. But I had to be loyal to my family.”

“You were like a sister
to me. You
were
my
family.”

“I’m sorry. We can
fix it, can’t we? Now that you know? They were just guards.
You said you didn’t care about them lots of times.”

Kariana felt a cold hand
squeeze her heart. She wanted so desperately not to be alone that
she had almost been fooled again. Marissa was still trying to cover
up her part in the attack on Lara.

Kariana looked down at Marissa.
There was so much she wanted to say, so many words, all meaningless,
all just more opportunities for a snake to slip inside her mind once
again. “I never cared about the guards.” Marissa’s
face lit with hope for a brief moment, then fell as she looked into
Kariana’s eyes. “Aiul tried to kill me because of your
stunt with his wife. And now I have to kill
him
.”

“No! It wasn’t—!”