Those Who Fear the Darkness (BloodRunes: Book 2) (20 page)

They had seemed like such genuinely nice
people; something that there was all too few of in the world – at
least in Katya’s experience. She couldn’t help but compare her own
corrupted existence to theirs, and she wondered if she could really
ever overcome the wrongs of her past. More than ever, she wanted to
find out what she had been like before she had become nothing but a
tool of others. She held onto the frail hope that her true self was
someone she could be proud of. But right now, she didn’t know who
that was.

She put the troubling thoughts out of her
mind and set about placing her wards before allowing her wearied
body its rest.

*

A knock sounded at Layna’s door and she put
down her book and went to answer it. A squirrely man in a
professional looking uniform stood in the hallway, his overly
straight posture making it look forced.

He put on a grin for her. “Ms. Layna,” he
greeted her with a bow. “Allow me to introduce myself: I am Noam.
The Triumvirate has seen fit to assign me to be your guide during
your stay here.” He held out a hand and she took it gently. He
brought it to his lips and kissed it with a flair of gallantry.

“So you’re to be my keeper then?” she asked
him, smiling good-naturedly.

“Keeper?” he asked, plastering a confused
look upon his face. “Heavens, no. They simply thought you could use
someone to look out for you seeing as you are not familiar with our
country or our customs. It must be terribly overwhelming for you so
far from home.”

The sympathetic look he gave her was so
overdone that she had a hard time believing that any of the
emotions he was trying so hard to display were sincere.

“Well, that is very kind of them,” she said
politely, opting for simplicity over her previous attempt at joking
around with him. Obviously he did not appreciate her humor. “Is
there something they’d like us to do?”

“Oh indeed.” The smile was back. “I am to
introduce you to some of the circles here so you can become
acquainted with the other ladies. Do you have a free moment?”

“Of course,” she agreed amicably, though she
was a little hesitant to meet these ladies. “Where to?”

He led her down the many hallways and out
into the gardens. As they walked through the maze of flowers, Layna
heard the group he was leading her to before she saw them. The
tinkling sound of soft music could be heard amidst the chatter of
many female voices interrupted by the twittering of laughter every
now and again.

Her guide led her to the circle of women, who
were gathered around a minstrel entertaining them while they sewed,
painted, or simply sat chatting on the patio set in amongst the
flowers.

The conversations all paused as she followed
Noam into their midst, and she looked around at the group. Several
of them she recognized by face, if not by name, and she felt a
twinge that the blond that Gryffon apparently knew so well was
among them.

They all smiled politely and greeted her with
friendly words as Noam introduced them to her each in turn.

The blond was Lady Thebius, though when Noam
introduced her, she smiled and rebuffed him, “Oh, don’t be so
stuffy, Noam, amongst us girls, it’s just Aria.” She turned to
Layna. “Welcome, Layna.”

Noam ignored the rebuke. “As you doubtless
all know, Layna is from Gelendan, so she’s probably a bit
uncomfortable. Let’s try and get her to open up a bit shall we
ladies? Tell us about yourself Layna.”

Layna shifted her weight and gave a weak
smile. Noam’s seemingly insincere attempt to integrate her into
their circle felt as though it was only further isolating her. She
thought she saw a look of disapproval on Aria face, and felt
herself warming to the woman as she cut in.

“Why don’t you leave her here with us ladies
for a while, Noam, so we can have some private girl-talk. You can
come fetch her when it’s time for dinner.”

Noam looked slightly put out, but he nodded
and bowed himself out of their presence.

“You’ll have to excuse Noam,” Aria said a bit
sardonically, rolling her eyes at his retreating form. “He seems to
enjoy making people squirm. It figures that the Triumvirate would
be silly enough to assign him as a guide. Men!” She gave a dainty
little snort.

One of the other women clicked her tongue at
her. “Now Aria, that’s no way to speak of your father!”

Aria waved a hand in the air, “Oh Shannon,
I’m only teasing.”

“Still,” Shannon went on in a stern tone,
“It’s important to maintain appearances and show the proper
respect.” She tilted her head away from Layna and lowered her
voice, though it was still loud enough for everyone present to
hear. “Especially in front of a foreigner.” She then gave Aria a
look that she no doubt thought that Layna wouldn’t pick up on.

Layna raised her eyebrows and looked at Aria
who just smiled and winked at her.

“Your father is one of the Triumvirate?”
Layna queried, breaking the silence that had spread across the
group, though several of them had gone back to their projects
content to ignore the proceedings, and the minstrel played on.

“Hmm,” Aria acknowledged, unable to say more
around the needle she was now holding between her lips. She removed
it, breaking the string with her teeth, which caused another
disapproving look from Shannon, and then answered. “Baron Thebius -
my father - has been on the council forever, and has been a part of
the Triumvirate the last three years. The Gods themselves spoke for
him at the last choosing.”

“Choosing?”

“Every five years there is a choosing where a
new Triumvirate is determined. Sometimes it ends up being the same
people, usually chosen by the vote of the entire council. But every
once in a while, Word comes down the river speaking for a
particular member and while it is still up to the vote, they are
almost always chosen.”

“Oh,” Layna said. She wanted to ask more, but
didn’t want to call attention to the fact that she didn’t know
their customs here. So instead she asked, “So you know
Gryffon?”

“Yes,” she said fondly, “We’ve known each
other since we were children. His family’s estate is very close to
my own, so we really pretty much grew up together.”

“They were engaged too, until he decided to
go all noble and run off to Gelendan to do his duty for his
country,” Shannon snipped.

Layna felt her smile falter and she rubbed
her nose to cover it.

“Hush you,” Aria scolded her once more, but
smiled broadly and shrugged her shoulders. “We were, but you can’t
stop a restless spirit I suppose. He’s far too interested in duty
for his own good. We could have been married and have our first on
the way already. Ah well.” She stared off into space a moment, and
Layna found that she had nothing to say.

But Aria wasn’t finished. She giggled, “I
remember once we went to a masked ball and he dressed up as a deer.
He was doing his mating grunt all night at me.” She shook her head
at the memory. “He is something else.”

Layna’s hands were getting cold and she found
it hard to plaster on her smile, wishing she had never gotten Aria
started on that particular subject. Lucky for her, one of the other
ladies seemed to have gotten bored with it, and she steered the
conversation in another direction.

Layna’s newness to the group was soon
forgotten and they fell back into the conversation that had lapsed
upon her arrival. Most of it was idle gossip much like Layna had
exchanged with her own friends back home. She was glad that the
other ladies seemed to have heard their fill about Gryffon and Aria
were disinclined to bring that particular subject up again. Layna’s
heart felt as though someone was squeezing it tight, and though she
liked this new woman as a person, she felt a strong aversion at the
same time. It was a strange mix of emotions to deal with, and Layna
wished that Noam would come back and get her soon.

Eventually he did return to escort her to
dinner and she excused herself with relief.

“Fit right in did you?” Noam asked, once
again with a tone that left Layna wondering what his real
intentions were.

She simply nodded.

She felt very alone.

CHAPTER 10

Nathair thrashed around in his sleep,
flailing his arms wildly about on the bed as dreams overtook
him.

He watched helplessly as his mind replayed
his childhood, feeling the exhaustion he had felt as his mother
pushed him to excel: running for hours a day, holding his breath
far longer than would be thought humanly possible, opening himself
to the river of power until its raging torrents burned his insides.
And then the first time she had brought him to her bed - at such a
tender age - where he had learned the strange pleasure she could
arouse, but that was always followed by intense pain. This mixture
of sweat, blood, pleasure and pain had molded his upbringing, made
him into the powerful creature that he was today.

Then a form floated into his dream. His
mother’s form, radiating sexuality so intense that he could not
stop himself from responding.

He tore himself awake, growling in his frenzy
and found that his mother stood before his bed, naked and ready for
him. He reached for her hungrily, but stopped short as a fury
overtook him.

She had invaded his dreams!

His hand balled into a fist and drove it into
her face as hard as he could.

She flew backwards and shrieked.

He pounded his fist against her again and
again, heedless of her cries until she was raw and bleeding all
over. Disgusted with himself, he spit on her limp form which she
had rolled into the fetal position to try and shield herself from
his blows.

He found that he was ravenous, and he
mentally sent an order for his guards to bring him a steak. He was
in the mood for some nice bloody meat. He tore a robe from its
stand and stepped over his mother’s whimpering body, making his way
into the antechamber.

He sat heavily into the chair and drummed his
fingers against the desk with impatience. His chest itched and he
scratched it irritably. The stone was fully embedded now. He had
even removed the chain as it was no longer necessary to hold it
there. It annoyingly seemed to be changing his skin around it
though which itched terribly. And his scar was burning once again.
The two annoyances were almost too much for him to bear.

He was still picking at the scaly skin when
the guard entered with the steak.

Nathair tore into it hungrily, not bothering
with such niceties like a fork and knife. When it was gone and he
had licked his fingers clean, he felt calmer. But he still didn’t
feel like going back to bed with his mother curled up in his
bedroom.

He pulled a mirror from his desk drawer and
sent a calling through it to Jezebel. No doubt she would be annoyed
being summoned so late, but she had no choice but to answer it. She
was as much his as he hoped both his girls someday would be.

It wasn’t long before the mirror shimmered
and her pinched face scowled at him. She looked rather frightening
without make-up and in the middle of the night.

“What is it?” she asked shortly.

“I want a report,” he told her as if it was
perfectly normal that he would be asking for such a thing at this
late hour.

She closed her eyes for a moment, as if
trying hard not to say something she would regret and he watched
with amusement, almost hoping she would. His earlier rage was not
completely gone and it would have entertained him to explode her
through the connection.
Yes, but then I would have to place
another emissary in Treymayne, and explain to them what had
happened to her…although I could say it was an assassination by one
of them as a reason to go to war. I’ll keep that in mind
…he
tore his thoughts away in time to see Jezebel regain control of
herself.

“I met with the council again to hear the
accusations that the supposed spy had against me and they quite
honestly didn’t seem to be too worried about what the man said. My
memory wouldn’t relinquish how I knew him, but even so I have
papers to discredit him should the need arise. The ‘hearing’ was so
short that I didn’t even have time to bring these up when they
asked to hear both sides. I really don’t think they’re putting much
stock in his word, which I really can’t blame them for. He and that
girl with him seemed awfully low-born. Probably just looking for
some attention and thought they could look important by pretending
to know me.”

For having been woken up in the middle of the
night, Jezebel had certainly worked herself nicely into a tirade
about these two. He wondered though… “What were their names?”

“Lord Gryffon…and something with an ‘L’, to
tell you the truth I just didn’t like the look of her. I half
wonder if she’s not a whore off the street that this Gryffon picked
up to try and back up his cockamamie story. They even said that I
had hellhounds. I think I’d know if I had hellhounds.”

“You did, and they tore you apart,” he told
her irritably, “Tell me, was the girl Layna?”

Jezebel looked stunned and was staring at him
slack-jawed. He mentally berated himself for having just told her
about her near-death experience. If he had triggered the memory he
could potentially have just made a lot of work for himself undoing
the damage it would cause to her state of mind. He repeated his
question. “Was the girl’s name Layna?”

Jezebel shook her head, and Nathair sent more
power to the spell woven into her mind to keep certain memories
blocked. The color returned to her face slowly and she seemed to
forget that the previous moment had occurred.

“Yes, that was it. A stupid name if you ask
me. Just the look of her made me angry.”

Nathair abruptly broke the connection with
Jezebel. His girl was in Treymayne.
But how did she get
there
? He wondered, but brushed the thought aside. That could
be dealt with later. Right now he needed to find a way to get
her.