The Destroyer Book 3 (68 page)

The three other men had already reached the door down the hall. Danor pulled out his dagger and entered first after Greykin pushed it open. By the time Nadea and I made it to the room the sounds of Beltor's voice and the chuckling of the other three men were leaking into the hallway. Nadea's walk turned into a sprint that only one of the O'Baarni could have matched and when she reached the doorway to her father's room she grabbed onto the dark oak trim with her left hand to spin her into the room quicker.

"Father!" I stopped in the hallway and couldn't help but smile. Nadea and her father were lost in an embrace so tight that they almost seemed to be one person. Beltor looked twenty years younger than when I had last seen him with Jessmei. He spun his daughter around in the air as if she weighed the same as a newborn. Finally, he set her down and pulled away to look at her face.

"I missed you so much." He clasped her cheeks and looked in her eyes. There was no mistaking the love and gratitude on the man's face. It warmed every part of my body and made me wonder what it would have been like to meet my own daughter. Would I have been as good of a father as Beltor was to Nadea?

"Greykin." Beltor turned away from the door and reached out to hug the older man. The Old Bear had trained the duke, the king, and their generals in their younger years, so I knew that the two men had a close relationship. Runir and Danor received strong hugs from the duke as well as words of gratitude.

"It is good to see you both. Thank you for bringing my daughter to me."

"You'd have to thank Kaiyer for that. It was his crazy idea to sneak into the castle and rescue you all," Danor said with a smirk as he nodded his head toward me.

"Kaiyer?" Beltor spun around to face me."By the Spirits!" His mouth hung open and his skin turned as white as Fehalda's.

"You don't exactly look happy to see me, friend." I smiled at him.

"I can hear his voice as well. Do you all see him, or am I going insane?" The duke's voice was hardly a whisper.

"What is wrong, Father?" Nadea stepped to the side of her father and her brows furrowed with worry.

"I see Kaiyer's Spirit in the doorway." He pointed at me.

"I'm no ghost, Beltor," I said with a laugh. Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming from the south side of the castle.

Many footsteps.

"You said there are passages out of this room?" I looked at Nadea and she nodded.

"Guards approach. I will buy you some time. Find Jessmei and flee the castle. Danor." I turned to the mustached man. "You will show them."

"Aye, Kaiyer. We'll wait for you at the horses."

"Don't wait too long. I can follow you on foot. You must get Nadea and Jessmei out of the castle."

"We'll do it, Kaiyer." Greykin growled and seemed to increase in physical size instantly, while Runir moved back in the suite to a bookshelf and pried at the edges.

"I saw you die, Kaiyer," Beltor whispered through pale lips. Everyone paused their movements and turned to me.

"You are mistaken, Duke. I am alive here now." I smiled and listened down the hall. It sounded like a dozen sets of feet. Maybe I would get lucky and it would only be servants.

"I know what I saw, man! That woman cut your--"

"Kaiyer!" a voice I recognized screamed down the south hallway and interrupted Beltor.

"Get Jessmei. Bar the door." I looked to Nadea and she nodded.

"Be safe," she said. Her brown eyes met mine and I wished the moment could have lasted forever. Instead, I grabbed the door and slammed it shut. Then I turned down the hall and began to walk toward the voice that had called my name.

"I thought I picked up your scent in the castle. I should have known that Fehalda was full of shit!" Isslata was flanked by ten guards who all wore Alatorict's colors. Her golden hair was tied in the usual thick braid, today it was laced with green ribbons and lavender blooms.

"You found me." I continued to walk toward her and tried to fight the worry gnawing into my stomach. Isslata was no fool and she must have known why I was here and in this hallway.

"Untie your sword belt and drop your weapon. The empress will wish to speak with you." Isslata smiled slightly and then her eyes shifted past me down the hall. We were still a few hundred yards from the doorway to Nadea's room, but I was sure Isslata could see the pool of blood on the ground and painted on the side of the wall. She must have wondered where her four guards were.

I didn't see her make a gesture, but the Elven warriors behind her drew their weapons. Swords were made to kill, and the sound of them escaping their scabbards was a song of death.

I stood fifty yards from Isslata. It was a distance I could cover quickly, but the odds of me surviving a charge against eleven armed warriors who had their blades ready and knew what I was capable of were low.

"I won't ask again, O'Baarni. Disarm. Now." Isslata's green eyes seemed to turn golden in the torchlight. I heard the ever fainter whispers of my friends as they retreated through the tunnels away from us. I didn't know for sure how well the Elvens could hear, but I hoped that Isslata didn't realize that the prisoners were escaping.

"No," I said. The words came out of my mouth with regret. It was not the time to muse on my feelings for the psychopathic Elven, but there was no denying the connection we had developed during our countless nights of sex and conversation. I did not want to kill her.

She stared back for a few seconds, face cold and impassive and beautiful. She could not tolerate my refusal in front of her warriors. I suspected if it were not for the fear she wielded through her violent and erratic behavior, many of them would have already questioned our relationship and her loyalty to the Elvens. One of us would have to die tonight unless she could figure out a way to retreat without looking weak.

"Kill him," she said softly. It was hardly a whisper but was filled with more remorse than I had expected.

Her guards sprang forward like rabid wolves, hungry for the kill that had taunted them for too long.

So be it.

I paced my room after Telaxthe left, my mind awhirl with thoughts too agitated to be contained in an immobile body. It was a relief to have something to think about besides Kaiyer’s death. The story the empress had told me was too fantastic to be real. Though sometimes the truth was harder to believe than the fantasies we created to protect ourselves from the pain of reality.

A soft knock sounded on my door and I paused. Perhaps my mind had been so wrapped up in my thoughts that I had created the noise out of some deep desire for company. The knock sounded again and I moved toward the oak door and opened it.

“Good evening, Princess.” An Elven woman wearing a green uniform with gold embroidery of trees and flowers stood in the hall. Her skin was a few shades grayer than snow white, while her hair was a darker ash. Her eyes sparkled like red rubies. They were the kind of eyes that would have made me think the woman was a monster had she not possessed such an alien beauty. It almost looked as if an artist had carved her out of granite and affixed the precious stones on her face just to give her some sort of color.

“The empress sent me to keep you company. It is close to midnight, but I heard you walking in your room.” The woman’s mouth curled into a slight smile and her beauty seemed to increase dramatically. Her hair was tied together in a loose bunch of braided curls, one of which I noticed was actually colored a red darker than her eyes. I realized I had been staring at the woman for longer than was polite and I felt my cheeks begin to burn.

“I was just thinking,” I replied.

"I pace when I am deep in thought as well. What were you thinking about?" She tilted her head slightly and her long braids fell to one side of her face.

"It doesn't matter," I said, maybe a little too quickly. I knew that by requesting an escort around the castle I would gain a bit of freedom, but it would saddle me with someone always watching what I was doing and trying to pry into my mind. It was worth the hassle until I could get a feel for what was actually going on in my home.

“Do you wish for food? Drink?” The woman’s smile disappeared and I guessed that she wasn’t used to being pleasant.

“I am fine,” I said, looking back over my shoulder. I had kept the fire burning brightly, along with several oil lamps. On the oak table were two pitchers of water and half a bottle of wine that I hadn't touched since the empress left fifteen minutes ago.

“Well, I could eat and would prefer someone to join me. We can walk to your main kitchen and then make the journey back. Perhaps the stroll and conversation with me will help you relax?” I debated telling her no, but realized that I might as well take advantage of the request I had made earlier, I did want to see the castle. Besides, I really was having problems sleeping and a bit of exercise would no doubt help my mind relax.

“I would enjoy that.” I smiled and then looked down at my clothes. I was wearing a light wool slip and it would be unseemly for anyone to see me dressed as such outside of my room.

“Can I change quickly?”

“Of course.” The gray woman nodded and stepped inside of my suite when I gestured for her to enter.

I walked to the other side of the main room and opened the door to my bedroom. Then I moved to my dresser and slid open the wood doors to reveal my abundant collection of dresses. When the woman who had killed Kaiyer returned me here I had been surprised to find my quarters as I had left them. I would have thought that the Loshers would have pillaged every square inch of the castle and burned whatever they couldn’t haul away. Most of the dresses required various sets of hands to help button, tie, braid, or otherwise fashion to my body, but there were a few I could manage by myself. I selected one, a smooth satin dress with a shorter cut at the legs. It was more of a spring dinner piece, but the garment was modest and easy to walk in. I hadn’t heard the footsteps of the woman follow me into my room, but I still stepped behind my vanity screen to take off my nightgown and slip on the new dress.

“That dress is pretty. It matches your eyes,” the Elven said after I walked out of my room.

“Thank you.” It was always nice to be complimented, but I doubted she really cared.

“You should brush your hair though.” She raised a finger to point to my blonde mane. I hadn’t bothered to look into a mirror after I put the dress on, and now that I thought about it, I didn’t remember the last time I had even glanced in one.

I returned to my bedroom and approached the mirror cautiously, afraid to see how awful I looked. My face was thin and the blue of my irises was bright against my bloodshot eyes and the dark circles that rimmed them. My hair was a nest of hay tumbling down my back and I realized with embarrassment that I had dined with the empress in this state. My mother would have been horrified. She always chided me about making a good impression, that keeping my appearance neat and pretty was not just good manners, but my duty as a representative of Nia. I sighed and vowed I would present myself in a more appropriate way the next time I saw the empress, and make my apologies for how I looked tonight. I ran my fingers through my matted hair. It would have taken my handmaidens an hour to sort through the tangles and arrange it properly. I could not keep the Elven woman waiting, so I did my best to quickly smooth it down and pin it up into something a little more presentable.

“What is your name?” I asked after I returned to the gray Elven.

“Vernine.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” I curtseyed and she bowed slightly. She gestured to the door and closed it behind us. The two guards in the hallway nodded as we passed but did not question where Vernine was taking me. Perhaps they had already discussed it, or maybe she outranked them and they were not supposed to question her.

“They have different colored uniforms than you do.” I should have said it as a question but the words came out as a statement, a stupid and obvious statement.

“They are in a different army.”

“The empress has different armies?” I had never paid much attention to any of the war talk my father engaged in, but I knew that Nia only had one army.

“The empress has five different generals. Each controls their own army.”

“Which army are you in?” If there were multiple armies with their own generals, perhaps I could find an ally in one of them.