The Destroyer Book 3 (69 page)

“I report directly to the empress. I am a commander in her Elite Guards.”

“But the other armies know who you are? You work together?” I tried not to sound like I was digging for information, but I supposed that Telaxthe wouldn't have sent Vernine if she thought I would be able to manipulate her.

“My green kit shows that I am with the empress.” She gestured to her uniform with some pride. “But I know the guards posted at your door. I was with the blue general when he seized your castle. We have been comrades for years now.”

“Who is the blue general?”

“Alatorict. You may not meet him for some time. Your interactions will be with the empress or myself.”

We walked in silence for the next few minutes until we reached the foyer of the Royal Wing. I descended the marble stairs, but after a few steps I noticed that Vernine wasn’t accompanying me. I turned up the banister and saw the ash woman sniffing the air slightly as if she had caught the scent of a dessert baking and was trying to determine the location of its oven.

“Are you okay?” Kaiyer had spoken about his heightened senses, but he had not mentioned these Elvens sharing similar traits.

“I am fine. Let us continue.” Vernine looked the exact opposite of what she said. I considered asking her what she smelled, but as she was clearly intent on lying to me about it, I did not bother.

There were five Elven guardsmen in the foyer, all dressed in blue. The group looked somewhat agitated. They had their hands on their weapon grips and moved to the bottom of the stairs as we descended.

"Hail, Vernine." The man in the front had bronze-colored hair shaved close to his skull. "Did you see Isslata?"

"No." Vernine stuck her tongue out and licked her lips quickly. "How long ago did she pass through here?"

"Not five minutes. She asked us not to let any humans leave this wing until she returned." The man turned his attention to me.

"She was accompanied by your warriors?"

"Yes." The man nodded and the other guards behind him mirrored his movement. They seemed agitated. "Her Saber Squad."

"I am sure they can handle whatever disturbance is afoot. You should obey her orders and detain any humans attempting to leave. The princess and I are on our way to the kitchen, we will return shortly." Vernine's voice never fluctuated. Something was going on in the castle, but she seemed completely indifferent. I supposed that Telaxthe had ordered her to attend to me and she was giving that task her undivided focus.

"Very well." The guards hesitated for a few seconds, but apparently Vernine had not lied earlier when she had spoken about her connection to the empress. The warriors stepped to the side of the stairway and allowed us to pass with no further words about my race.

"Who is Isslata?" I asked after we had left the foyer for the south bound hallway toward the center of the castle.

"Alatorict's primary commander and trainer for his army."

"Is there something amiss in the castle?" I asked the obvious question.

"Perhaps," the woman turned to me, "if you believe in Spirits or ghosts." Her lips parted in a slight smile. She wasn't used to smiling.

"I do believe in Spirits," I said.

"Oh? Tell me more."

"When the people we love die, they often come back to watch over us. They do their best to aid the living. It brings them peace in the afterlife." I was giving her the short version. I could have spoken about the specifics of prayer and such for hours, but I suspected she may have been sarcastically asking me about my faith. Then again, I could not tell if this ash-skinned Elven even knew what sarcasm was; her voice was so devoid of emotion.

"Did you love the O'Baarni man who called himself Kaiyer?"

"Yes," I said softly, remembering his lips on mine, his scent, his smile, everything came crashing into me like a wave against the beach.

"He is dead. You saw him die?" Her words were an arrow through my heart. The world spun and dove. I slowed my walk and tried to concentrate on not crying. I thought I was past this, but this strange woman pried loose the memory of Kaiyer's head rolling on the ground.

"Yes." My eyes watered and I didn't say the word as much as choke it out. I wanted to go back to my room now. I wanted to be alone and mourn until my body left this world and joined his. But I needed to focus on Vernine and the walk to the kitchen. I didn't want her to think I was some stupid love struck girl.

Then again, perhaps it would be better if they underestimated me.

"Perhaps he is here watching over you." The woman put a hand on my shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. Her eyes seemed to glow evilly in the torch light while her mouth displayed perfectly white teeth, but the smile was friendly and her expression sympathetic and sincere instead of malicious.

"I hope so." I sniffed and patted the edge of my dress sleeve against the corner of my eye.

"He was an interesting one, your Kaiyer."

"You knew him?" I turned to the woman and tried not to seem surprised. I knew that Kaiyer was held captive by the empress, but I didn't know how much contact he had with her people.

"Yes. I knew him better than most of my people know his kind." She smiled cryptically. "My kin have a saying in our ancient language: ‘The most certain determines the outcome.’"

"The most certain," I repeated and tried to wrap my mind around the concept without her explaining it further. After half a minute I gave up and asked her to explain what she meant.

“If there are two warriors facing each other in a duel, the one who is most certain of victory will triumph. If two groups are engaged in a political debate, the one that is most certain they are right will win. This is why one must be extensively trained in any discipline they practice. You must have confidence in your ability and enough knowledge to achieve success.”

"I think I understand. When I first learned to dance, I felt clumsy and could not perform the movements correctly. After enough practice, I had more confidence and I was certain I would do well at balls." I winced inside at my words. It was a reply I would have given a year ago perhaps, but I had changed. I didn't care about dancing anymore, or Vernine's philosophy, but I needed her to think that I did. I wanted her to think of me as a vapid princess with nothing on her mind but love, dancing, and parties.

"Did you dance well because of the practice, or because the practice made you confident?" Vernine smiled a bit at her question.

"The practice made me certain I would do well. I had repeated the movements hundreds, maybe thousands of times. I couldn't have been successful without the practice."

"Perhaps you are correct. But one day you will have to do something you have never done, and you will be so certain of your success that your mind shall create the outcome you wish for."

"Maybe."

"No maybes. Only certainty." She smiled at me again. I laughed at her point and shook my head.

"I like you, Vernine," I said sincerely. The Elven was emotionless, but she didn't seem dangerous, just mildly bored with babysitting me.

"I like you too, Princess. I liked your friend as well. I bring up the certainty because he was the prime essence of that saying. He seemed to have no doubt in his mind that he was the actual Kaiyer. Even when we had him detained in our camp, completely at our mercy, he treated the situation as if he could crush us at any time. It was annoying, yet charming." She smirked and I realized that the woman did have facial expressions. They were just very slight.

"He frustrated my brother as well. Once Kaiyer and I were having lunch and Nanos interrupted us. Kaiyer didn't appreciate the way my brother spoke to me and threw him in the creek." The memory made me want to giggle and cry at the same time.

"That sounds like something he would do," Vernine said. "Here." We had reached the set of stairs that led down into the main kitchen. I had been here a few times in my life, mostly when I was a young girl and spent my days chasing Nadea, Nanos, and Runir around the castle. They would duck into the kitchen to steal treats or food and I would often get caught attempting to mirror their capers.

The sound of thunder suddenly rang through the halls as if a storm cloud found itself inside of the castle. Vernine and I stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked up to the ceiling. It was hard to tell where the noise had come from, but it had definitely not originated in the kitchen.

"What was that?" I tried not to sound afraid, but I probably failed.

"Nothing that can't wait until after we eat." She shrugged nonchalantly and pushed open one side of the double swinging doors. I followed her into the kitchen and was surprised to see only Elvens in the room. They were wearing servant clothes, but in the empress's shade of green instead of traditional Nia purple.

“Where are the human servants?" I asked.

"They are in the West Wing's kitchen. The empress wanted her staff in the main kitchen until she had a chance to work out responsibilities with you and your family." The atmosphere in the room seemed tense and the gathered Elvens looked very relieved to see my escort.

"Can you put together a meal for us?" Vernine addressed a black-haired woman with eyes that looked like an animal's.

"Of course, Vernine. Do you or your human have a preference?" There was another loud sound of thunder and a few of the Elvens in the room gasped in complete surprise. The cook's face went a few shades whiter.

"Whatever is fresh." The woman with ruby eyes completely ignored the sound and the obvious fear around her. I had to admit that her indifference to the noise made me wonder why the cooks and servants were so skittish. Elvens were so much stronger than humans, what could they have to fear?

"I gave the other two humans some fish and vegetables. I can prepare the same for you and yours." The cook's big eyes darted back and forth between the two of us.

"There were two humans in this kitchen?" Vernine asked.

"Males. About three quarters of an hour ago. Just some servants delivering food to the duchess, or princess, or someone like that."

"What did they look like?" Vernine seemed interested. Or at least, one of her gray eyebrows rose slightly.

"Don't they all look the same?" The woman laughed and then cut short when she realized that Vernine either didn't get her joke or seem to care. "One had a dash of hair in between his nose and mouth. The other was much thinner."

"The thin human; what color were his eyes and hair?"

"His hair was dark brown. I don't recall his eye color." She turned over her shoulder and yelled something unintelligible to the men behind her, who promptly buttered an iron pan and began rummaging through cabinets.

"We'll be done in a quarter--" Another boom, more like a series of rumbles, sounded distantly in the castle. This time the plates on the shelves rattled and the chandelier on the ceiling swung slightly.

"What is going on?" All pretense of calm vanished amongst the cooks and they joined the woman at the table to beg Vernine for answers.

"Probably nothing, you should go about your duties until instructed otherwise."

Almost as soon as Vernine finished her words, the castle alarm bell rang. It was a horribly loud device, connecting almost two hundred flat gongs, large chimes, and cup shaped bronze bells to ring all at once across the massive castle. I was somewhat used to the noise as it was tradition to use it on the turn of the new year to test the device. But I had only ever heard it rang once before as an actual alarm, just a few minutes before I was kidnapped. The alarm I remembered was almost ear-splitting, but someone must have damped a few of the more aggressive bells. I could still hear the ring, and it was still loud, but it was less painful now.

"Apparently it is far from nothing." Vernine smiled. "You should all exit through the servants' doors and stay in your rooms until the alarm stops." The Elvens gathered in the kitchen seemed relieved to be given orders. I turned to watch their swift retreat and marveled at how quick and graceful their movements were. When they left I turned back to the gray woman.

"What about us?" I tried not to let my nervousness show. My red-eyed escort still seemed completely at ease with the situation. I wondered who could attack the Elvens in our castle. Another group of Kannath's clansmen? Maybe they had come to our world looking for him and were extracting revenge.

"I'm still hungry." Vernine flowed around the table and opened a salt chest. She pulled a few fish from the container, checked to see that they had been prepped and cleaned, and threw them on the heated iron pan with little ceremony. Then she grabbed a stack of green leafy vegetables and diced them.

"Grab a bottle of white from the cellar, please." She pointed off to her right with the knife.

I was thankful for the task. It would keep my mind off of the thought of hundreds of tattooed O'Baarni warriors running through the halls of my castle, killing everything in their path. I opened the door to the kitchen's massive pantry, descended the long stairs to the ample wine cellar and combed the shelves for a suitable bottle. It took me a few minutes to find one. It came from the hills just above Relliat, ironically; the grapes would pair well with the fish.

I was only in the cellar for a few minutes at the most, just long enough for the alarm to sound again, but when I returned to the kitchen Vernine was gone. The fish still sizzled in the pans and she had added the cut greens to another skillet; covering the vegetables with butter and salt. I thought she might have walked to the other side of the kitchen, but a quick glance around the room revealed that I was alone.