“And where you go, Percian goes. Or so you say.”
“You don’t think I can deliver him to you after I’ve dropped Huntiata and Feractian in your lap?” She smiled incredulously at me, “Elena, you insult me.”
“Does Percian know of your true plan?”
She blushed a little, “I… well… no.”
I grinned. “You’re abandoning him, you evil bitch.”
“I am not.” She said with and indignant tilt of her chin, “Percian Feltian is promised to wed Sofia Droughtius, but Sofia Alkandra does not intend to be tied down.” She giggled a little, “Or perhaps she does, I don’t yet know her proclivities, but monogamy most assuredly won’t be for her.”
“Sofia, you disappoint me. Keeping your promise is the entire basis of trust. You’re betraying him.” And even as I said it, I felt like a terrible hypocrite.
She blushed even harder, an expression of shame crossing her face. “I did what I thought I had to, my lady. I am sorry.”
“Well, it’s done.” I sighed, then gave her an impish smile, “But I’m going to have to punish you for it later.”
LEVERIA
“…now,” I sighed, easing into my chair, “what is it I can do for you, Lord Huntiata?”
The old bastard twiddled his mustache. “I have questions about yesterday’s battle.”
“You understand that I can’t divulge military secrets. The Dark Queen undoubtedly has spies in the court.”
“Lady Straltaira?”
I laughed, “Lady Straltaira is our spy, my lord.”
“Are you so sure?”
“I am.”
Huntiata was guarded and uncomfortable in his chair. He was a straight-forward man, and believed that money and swords were the only power that mattered, and so flaunted his abundance of both. Not now, obviously, since he had neither money nor swords with the watch on strike. I’d hoped when he came knocking on my door that he’d be looking for me to help procure his precious wealth, but it was obvious by the chain of ham-handed questioning I was receiving that he was simply vetting another factor. Huntiata was a very poor player of the game.
I poured myself a morning glass of wine, sipped it, and smiled at the lord. “Has she fucked you yet?” I asked.
Huntiata startled like I’d struck him. “What?”
“Has Lady Straltaira opened her legs and let you inside of her, or do you prefer to use her more… unique feature?”
Huntiata turned a shade of red that bordered on purple. “Your Highness, I… I can’t believe you’d even suggest such a thing! She’s a dark-blood! A monster! A harlot from the bowels of hell!”
“So the noises coming from your open upstairs window at seven o’clock last night after Lady Straltaira visited you through the hidden entrance in the alleyway were you and her just… aggressively moving furniture.” I laughed at his reaction, “There are very few secrets I don’t know. I choose not to share them because discretion is paramount in statecraft.”
“Are you blackmailing me?”
“I would never do that. Loyalty is not something that can be forced.”
“You want my loyalty.”
“Do I not already have it? I am your queen.”
“Of course.” He said, tucking his chin. He eyed me from beneath his brows. “Have you… never mind.”
My smile broadened. “I am the queen of the Highlands. I have taken oaths that cannot ever be broken. They’re not just oaths of matrimony, but oaths of state. Infidelity for me doesn’t just mean a divorce, but a constitutional crisis. There are no treasonous questions, only treasonous answers, but I’m a little insulted that you’d even think it, much less suggest it.”
“My apologies, Your Highness.”
“Don’t apologize. It was I who steered the conversation right into the gutter.” I tittered sweetly, “While my occupation is a consuming and thrilling experience, the personal life of royalty is designed to be dull. You nobles with your scandalous debauchery are so very intriguing to me. I’ve heard—and this just might be rumor—but I’ve heard that Lord Ternias has two dawn-elves on staff that he uses as ‘comfort servants.’”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that.” Huntiata grumbled.
“I’m sure.” I said around my wine. “And what of Lady Droughtius?”
“She’s a fine young woman. I’ve heard nothing lewd of her, and I won’t slander her name with gossip.”
“Of course. And Lord Xantian? Has Lady Straltaira got her hooks into him yet?” I probed with a conspiratorial smile.
“It was my understanding that Lord Xantian already got his contracts procured with the help of Lord Ternias.” Huntiata shifted uncomfortably.
My smile broadened. “And let me guess, it wasn’t Lord Ternias who told you that.”
“My queen, I’m not at liberty to… um… I don’t want to discuss court matters here, if it pleases you.”
“My apologies, my lord. Now, you were asking about the battle?”
He twiddled his mustache again, and considered me carefully. “What happened to the causeway at Mid Fort?”
“There was a spell that destroyed it if the gate was ever breached.” I replied.
“The king told me he’d never heard of such a spell, and it’s his family who made those forts.”
My smile cracked a little. “My husband, bless his heart, is not an aficionado of history, even that of his own family.”
“I had heard from Lady Straltaira…”
“Lady Straltaira wants peace at all cost, and she is not above fearmongering.” I gave him an impish smile, “She’s not above doing quite a few things to get what she wants.”
He coughed uncomfortably, then stood up, and bowed.
“Is that all you wanted to know from me, my lord?” I asked.
“Yes.” He grunted, “Thank you for your hospitality, my queen.”
“The pleasure was mine.” I smiled, and watched him walk away, escorted by Sir Raftas. When the door shut, I practically sprinted across the room. On the table in my office, were the names of the ten nobles. Shordian was in my pile, Jonias and Xantian were in Ternias’s pile, and Droughtius was in Elena’s pile. In the middle, were Feltian, Feractian, and Huntiata. But it was all wrong, everything, and the jaws of the trap were closing.
ADRIANNA
The mines weren’t just a maze; they were a city beneath the earth. The Highlanders of old had sought to extract every last piece of valuable metal from the Great Forest’s basement, and they had dug deep and long. There were caverns that stood fifty-feet high, and there were tunnels that required us to crawl on our bellies. Some led to dead-ends, some led to forks, and others led back to where we’d come. When we sniffed the air with our heightened vampire senses, all we smelled was dampness and decay. There was no light. We saw through the darkness with the heat-lenses in our eyes, seeing the path by the way the cool water covered the rocks. We moved deftly through it all, navigating slippery rocks and uneven surfaces without a single errant slip. But we were still lost. In a straight line, the distance between Castle Thorum and Alkandra was a four-day horse ride. The mine exited just ten miles north of Castle Thorum. I had given a conservative estimation of six days for our trip. That was becoming optimistic. With no sense of direction, and no sunlight to guide us east or west, we had to resort to our memory, and our minds were becoming hazy with hunger.
Do you need me to change now? Furia asked me telepathically.
We can only risk it once per day. Vampires can smell blood for a mile.
We haven’t seen any of them yet.
You know damn well that doesn’t mean they’re not here. They won’t show up on thermal.
They? A voice interrupted us, Who is ‘they?’ There is only ‘we’ down here, distant child of mine.
Furia and I froze in our tracks.
I am disappointed that Drake decided to create half-breeds. I told him to never do that, but you know how boys are. If their mother tells them ‘no,’ it must mean fun. Is that why he fucked me?
Furia and I looked at each other. Gloria Titus? I asked the void.
Do they still know my name on Tenvalia? That’s nice. This backwater continent does have its charm.
We’re here at the behest of the Dark Queen.
Hmm… I don’t know you very well, distant child, but I know that was a lie. A slight inflection in your thought patterns, a minute elevation of your heartrate. It doesn’t really matter anyway. The Dark Queen was never of any consequence to me. What was Alkandi really, but a glorified sorceress? On the pantheon of demigods, she rated very low. I have known true gods. They moved mountains, turned deserts to rainforests, and melted glaciers. The Dark Queen is very good at fucking, but I daresay I’ve had better.
We looked around, but we could see nothing.
Will you help us? Furia asked.
No, I don’t think I will. Old age has made me very lazy, and when food comes willingly into my abode, I think it’s just natural ***********ion asking me to help it along. Directed evolution, and all that.
You can’t eat another vampire.
You are not vampires. You are pretenders. To truly know what being a vampire is, you must understand the craving. It will come to you, you will see. You thought you knew it when you first transformed, but that was but a glimpse. It will drive you to a madness you cannot comprehend. Just ask those lost children who surround you now.
Though I could not feel the cold, a chill crawled up my spine. I switched from my thermal lenses to my normal sight. We weren’t in total darkness. A small bit of faint light came from an unknowable source, and it bounced off the reflective water on the rocks, the pools on the ground, and the hundreds of wide, manic red eyes gazing at us from the mine’s ceiling.
They can smell your falsehood. They hate you for it. And when the craving becomes unbearable, you will risk them. You will take off your disguises, and run blindly through the darkness, and my lost children will feed. If you come to me, I promise I’ll make your end painless. I cannot promise the same for them. They like to savor the screams. Follow my voice if you wish to die well. I don’t really care. I’m not even that hungry.
She said no more. I looked up at the decrepit white bodies clinging to the ceiling like humanoid spiders, then looked back to Furia.
“What do we do?” She asked with her real voice.
“Run.” I said.
And we did. We sprinted blindly through the corridors, moving so fast that my thermal eyes had trouble catching the walls before I ran into them. The vampires overhead scurried after, not chasing us, but simply following. We weren’t trying to outrun them, but ourselves. I didn’t know where we were going, but indecisiveness wasn’t a luxury I could afford anymore. I chose our path, trying to keep an alternating pattern of right and left just to avoid going in a circle. We only needed to find an exit. At this point, I could deal with Arbor’s questions. Right, left, right, left, right… what?
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