Betrayals (7 page)

“I can do anything I please!” Zolind growled in a louder than-normal voice, thawing the attention of everyone in the salon. Those immediately around him had remained silent, trying to disassociate themselves from the portly man who was so rash as to disagree with Zolind. The entity felt their disturbance clearly, and made no attempt to change it.

“I can do anything I please, including rejecting people I imply cannot stomach!” Zolind growled forcefully, glaring it the portly man. “That Delin Moord is one of them, and I’ve become convinced that Moord is the one responsible or Ollon’s death. Someone has to be responsible, someone has to pay! Do you have any idea how much I miss—”

Zolind’s words broke off as he obediently turned away from his guests, one hand covering his eyes to demonstrate his anguish. A roomful of glances were exchanged, making it plain that most of them were aware of Zolind’s relationship with Ollon Kapmar. It was also clear that Zolind had never mentioned it aloud before, and more than a few of the observers were upset by Zolind’s abrupt loss of self-control.

“You have our sympathy, of course, my friend, but you must be reasonable,” the portly man was made to say gently after a moment. “If the winning Five isn’t Seated, the commoner leaders will want to know why. Telling them that someone has to pay for Ollon’s death won’t satisfy them, not when there’s no actual proof that it was this Moord fellow. And you don’t have actual proof, do you?”

“I dislike the elder Moord, and I loathe his son!” Zolind was made to shout as he whirled back to face the fool who challenged him. “Have you somehow forgotten exactly who I am? I want someone to pay for Ollon’s death, and therefore someone will pay! Are you too stupid to understand that?”

Zolind was now in a frenzy, his eyes opened wide as spittle sprayed from his. mouth. Those closest to him had taken a pair of steps back, some retreating even farther. The portly man was made to look horrified as he joined everyone else in recoiling, and that was allowed to increase the Advisor’s agitation. Zolind began to shout incoherently, his face reddening dangerously as he accused everyone in the room of being in collusion against him. Then the Advisor gasped and clutched at his chest, faltering a moment before collapsing to the floor.

The portly man led some of the others in rushing to Zolind, but it was already too late. The entity had caused the Advisor’s heart to fail, killing the man almost instantly.

“He’s dead!” the portly man announced in a shocked whisper as he struggled to straighten up. “He’s dead, and I feel responsible!”

“You were insane for arguing with him, but it isn’t your fault that he’s dead,” one of the other guests grudged, relieving the entity of the need to cause someone to say that. “Losing Ollon obviously unhinged him, and we’re all quite fortunate that he died. If he’d lived, his madness would have caused untold harm before someone found the courage to oppose him.”

“If they’d ever found it,” the portly man agreed with a sigh. “Zolind’s autocratic manner has never been easy to disagree with, but tonight I simply couldn’t abide letting the matter go. There would have been all sorts of trouble if the new Five failed to be Seated simply because Zolind disliked one of them, but the other Advisors would never have been able to overrule him.”

“People have said for years that Zolind had a collection of serious indiscretions to hold over their heads,” someone else put in. “Anyone opposing him would have been promptly arrested … and now I wonder where that collection might have been kept.”

Others joined the speculation as servants were called to attend to the body, and the most uniform emotion the group shared was an air of disappointment. The entity perceived that Zolind’s guests disliked the idea of no longer being an intimate of so important a man, although “intimate” wasn’t precisely the right word. Zolind had been really close to no one but Ollon Kapmar; the rest had been all but faceless company for a man who had disliked dining alone.

At that point the entity withdrew, and once it had returned to the coach Kambil dissolved the bond. He joined the others in taking a deep breath to celebrate their first success, then rapped on the coach roof to signal the driver to get them away from there. There was still one further chore to be done tonight, and then they would be able to return to the residence to eat and rest. Tomorrow … well, that remained to be seen, depending on whether or not the rest of the Advisors held their meeting, or attended the farewell ceremony for Zolind.

Kambil smiled into the darkness as the coach began to move. There was no need for their entity to attend a farewell ceremony, but the full Advisory meeting was another matter entirely….

CHAPTER SIX

“I’ve been looking forward to this all day,” Lanir said as he closed the bedchamber door behind us. “I felt tempted to taste your charms yesterday, but I dislike lack of response in a woman. I expected to have most of the day with you today, not realizing that I would be called away on business. Don’t bother ringing for a maid. Helping you out of that gown will be my pleasure.”

“First answer a question for me,” I said, crossing most of the room before stopping and turning back to look at him. “My group was winning that final competition, and then suddenly we were unconscious. How did they do that?”

“Hilsom powder in your underclothes, which stayed undisturbed until the underclothes were shaken with Air magic, forced you out of touch with the power, and then Earth magic users helped the powder to put you to sleep,” be answered easily enough as he followed me across the room. “That’s what’s usually done, although it’s never been necessary in the final round before.”

“And what became of my groupmates?” I asked, standing my ground as his arms began to circle me. “Were they all claimed by someone like you?”

“I have no idea what became of them, nor do I care,” he replied, smiling down at me as his embrace slowly tightened. “And I believe you’ll discover that there is no one else precisely like me. Raise your lips to mine.”

“For what purpose?” I asked, flatly refusing to let my voice tremble. “I may be prepared to say goodbye to you and this vile place, but that doesn’t necessarily call for a kiss.”

“Are you trying to tease me?” he asked, his tone less than pleased. “If you are because you think I might enjoy it, allow me to assure you that you’re wrong. Denial is not my idea of enjoyment, and can only bring you punishment. Although how the need for punishment can be possible after the orders you’ve been given …”

“Have you finally noticed that I’m not as obedient as I’m supposed to be?” I asked in what I hoped was a mocking tone. “It’s certainly about time, as the touch of you against my body is making me ill. Release me this moment, or you’ll surely wish you had.”

“How dare you!” he began to demand in a growl, and then his expression abruptly changed. Fear flashed in his eyes as he suddenly touched the power, but his burst of understanding came too late. I’d already applied a tiny line of flames to his forearms under his sleeves, which made him flinch back with a scream even as he opened his own talent wide.

“What have you done?” he choked out in a strangled whisper, cradling his arms in trembling hands. “You’re opened to the power, but that’s not possible! And you’re so—”

“Strong?” I suggested, speaking the word he hadn’t. “I would ask why that frightens you—if I weren’t able to tell that you have no more than Middle talent. Doesn’t that mean your title has to be changed to Seated Middle? I can’t wait to tell that joke to everyone in the city….”

His scream interrupted before I could suggest the price of my silence, and then there were flames all around, trying to burn me to cinders. My defenses had automatically flared into being an instant before the attack, which in this case meant no more than simply keeping the ravening fire at a distance. Lanir just wasn’t strong enough to overwhelm me, So I smiled faintly through the flickering evidence of his fear-filled anger.

“You can see that that isn’t doing you a bit of good,” I pointed out gently. “If you’re wise you’ll be reasonable about letting me go, but first you’ll have to convince me that you intend to keep to any bargain we happen to make, have no reason to trust you and every reason not to, so—” “No!” the man screamed with fists clenched, insanity beginning to peer out of his eyes. “I can’t let you go after insisting that I be allowed to claim you! I’ll look like a fool, and I’ll become a laughingstock! Better to be thought clumsy for having turned you to ash—!”

And then his eyes widened with his effort, an effort I understood only after a very long moment. The fool was ignoring his limits and trying to take in enough power to match me, which meant he really was insane. Middles weren’t able to step past that natural block—

His third and last scream shook me so badly that I stumbled back, narrowly missing a collision with a table. Along with the scream had come the abrupt severing of Lanir’s touch on the power, followed by the man’s sitting down hard on the carpeted floor. By then he had stopped screaming, and I didn’t need to see his black, fixed stare to know what had happened. He’d forced himself past his natural stopping place, and had burned himself out for his trouble.

I turned away to find a chair to sit down in, needing a moment to pull myself together. The fact that Lanir had taken himself out of my way permanently didn’t bother me, but the screaming he’d done did. How soon would people come rushing in to see what had happened? And when they came, would I be able to protect myself from them? I wasn’t sure, not when I didn’t know how many there would be and what they would be capable of….

Trying to still the trembling of my hands occupied me for a few minutes, and then I began to wonder why no one had appeared yet. Surely someone had heard the screams, no matter how big that house was, so why hadn’t they—The question died as the answer came so abruptly that I was suddenly enraged. No one had come after hearing the screams because they thought I was the one doing the screaming. They must have been very used to their employer’s way of enjoying himself….

That realization calmed me completely, so familiar was it. My husband had run the same sort of household, and now Lanir would soon be in the same condition as my husband. That idea seemed so beautifully right that I turned in the chair to look at Lanir, seeing again the way he sat and stared and drooled. When they found him they would put him down, making no effort to preserve an empty husk. The man who had been was no longer housed in that body, so what was the sense in keeping it alive?

I went to the tea service then to discover that it had been refilled with fresh tea, so I helped myself and spent some time simply sitting and sipping. I had to wait until the household had settled down for the night before I could leave, so there was no rush to go and start and do. What I would eventually do was walk away into the night, even though I had no idea where I was or where I would go. Lanir had claimed not to know where my groupmates were, but I still had to find them….

The part of me that never seemed to touch the power quailed at the idea of such an impossible task, but it wasn’t really all that impossible. Someone had to know what had been done with the others of my group, so the first thing I had to do was find that someone. It occurred to me that I could ask Eltrina Razas, who might not be very interested in answering my questions. I would then have to make her interested, and there would be no losing her the way I’d lost Lanir—at least not until she answered my questions.

Thinking about Eltrina Razas became planning a way to reach her, which brought me to the subject of a coach or carriage. I’d have to hire one, of course, even if Lanir had his own stables and coach house. Women just didn’t go driving all by themselves in that city, and doing it anyway would simply get me noticed. But I had no money …

After putting my cup down, I rose and walked over to Lanir where he still sat on the carpeting. The stain on his trousers—added to the terrible smell that seemed to be all around him—suggested he’d lost control of his bodily functions, but his wallet still lay securely around his waist and untouched by any effluvia. I bent carefully and unbuckled then carried it back to my chair. Since the former Seated High had brought me to a place I never wanted to be, he could just pay to have me driven away again. His wallet contained a really fat purse, which in turn contained quite a bit of gold and silver. Discovering that sent me on a search of the room, to see if I might find any sort of handbag. The wardrobe was empty of everything, including the dress I’d worn earlier in the day, which I found rather confusing. If I’d been meant to live in that room, why would there be nothing of clothing for me? The possibility I eventually came up with made me sneer in Lanir’s direction. He could well have meant to keep me in a nightdress—or naked—to be certain that running away was impossible, possibly as women before me had done, That said quite a lot about him as a man, making him some-one who held women with restraints rather than with kindness or enticements. Was there anyone—other than his cronies in the government—who would mourn his passing? I thought it unlikely as I turned away from my search with nothing to show for the effort. There was no handbag and nothing to use in place of one, which meant that I would have to tie the purse to my underskirts after taking out a few silver dins. Showing gold would bring trouble of its own if the wrong people saw it, and I’d certainly have trouble enough without adding to it. Anxiety to leave that place had begun to grow inside me, but I forced myself to have one final cup of tea before making the attempt. It had been at least two hours since Lanir had brought me back to that room, and by now all the servants should have retired. I’d find out soon enough if they hadn’t, but that final cup of tea would lessen the chance of an unpleasant encounter.

When the time finally— came to leave, I took one last glance around the bedchamber and then walked to the door. Lanir hadn’t looked it, I’d noticed at the very beginning, but I’d still taken a small ring of keys from his wallet as well as the gold and silver. If the servants were all in bed, the house ought to be completely locked up. I had no intention of creeping heart-stoppingly all the way to the door, only to find it locked with something other than a slide bolt. And I did end up virtually creeping through the dark halls, my heart pounding heavily in my ears. I felt certain that no one in that house would have been able to stop me, but the idea of running into someone still caused my heart to pound and my mouth to go dry. Most of me wanted to run to get out of there, and only the knowledge that I’d certainly have a long distance to go before I found a coach or carriage kept me from wasting my physical strength.