The Devil Incarnate (The Devil of Ponong series #2) (31 page)

QuiTai wanted to
wipe the smirk off his face. If he only knew, he’d take this as seriously as
she did.

She turned the
farwriter around so she wouldn’t have to look at him while she typed her
message. He wouldn’t be able to read the incoming messages from across the
room. As a precaution, she’d burn them after reading them. That was all she
could do.

Her fingers
stretched toward the keyboard.

Q

She sent the message and hoped it was the right one. Every minute
that passed with no reply made her feel like an unwanted visitor forced to sit
in the hallway while newer arrivals were shown into an office. Was Grandfather
Zul trying to put her into her place? He’d obviously forgotten how patient the
Ponongese were.

Kyam’s bed creaked as he rose. She watched him over her
shoulder. He took a kettle off the cooking fire and poured steaming water into
a teapot.

“I finally received my remittance, so I can afford oil now.”
He opened canisters and sniffed their contents before choosing one. “Like I
said, he never answers my messages. Even when he did, it took a while to get a
reply.”

He poured out the water and put tea leaves into the pot.
“I’ll make a cup for you too.”

“No thank you.”

“I’m not going to poison you.”

The bell on the
farwriter dinged.

“Never trust anyone
on this island, Kyam. Anyone.” QuiTai turned her attention to the line of text
appearing on the paper scroll.

It’s a pleasure to finally speak with you,
Lady QuiTai. TtZ

He’d chosen the form
of Thampurian etiquette. She wondered if she should reply in a Ponongese manner
or follow his lead. He’d lived on Ponong and would understand the gesture. She
bit her bottom lip. Was she over-thinking a simple exchange?

“Kyam, is
Grandfather Zul one to play mind games?”

From the look on Kyam’s face, that question offended him.
She should have remembered Hadre’s warning. Having to tiptoe around one Zul was
bad enough, but juggling two at the same time was going to be impossible.

“Poorly worded. Let me try again. Is he known for his wit?”

“He’s the terror of the salons in Surrayya. Mother won’t
even invite him anymore, although he shows up when he wants to. It’s not as if
she could have him barred from his own parlor.”

“No. Of course not.”

“You sound distracted.”

“I am. I’m trying to talk to your grandfather and you keep
–” She gestured a blabbing mouth with her hand as she leaned closer to
the farwriter. That didn’t help her decide how to reply to the message.

Kyam checked the color of the tea and poured a cup. “Is
there a problem?”

“Just clarifying the rules of the game at this point.”

She stared at the words. ‘To finally speak with her.’ What
did that mean? He addressed her as Lady QuiTai. What meaning was hidden behind
that show of manners?

“He’s really not
that bad of a man. You just bring out the worst in people. Sure you don’t want
tea?”

“Hmm? If you’re
going to pester me until I say yes, then yes. Now hush.”

I regret that we can’t meet in person,
Grandfather Zul. Q

If he was going to
be polite, two could play at that game. She almost laughed. Only a Thampurian
would think of manners as a weapon. Well, a Thampurian and her. She had a
mental image of them circling each other. She wondered what he looked like.

 
Kyam set a cup
of tea on the table. She quickly ripped the scroll and carried it over to the
cooking fire. He chuckled as she burned the papers. “Always so secretive.”

Conversation with Kyam would be too distracting, so she
didn’t encourage him with a response. He spun a chair around and straddled it,
his arms resting on the back as he stared at her. He had to know that was
annoying, but she wouldn’t let him draw her into conversation that way either.

This time when the
bell rang, she ripped the paper as soon as the message finished typing and
carried it to the fire.

I, too, wish we could have spent some time
together when I was in Ponong. I would have expressed my great admiration for
your manipulation of the rice market. Although, of course, you hadn’t
implemented that plan yet. You surprised me. That doesn’t often happen. Oh, not
that I didn’t think you were capable of it. Call it a lack of imagination on my
part. It never would have occurred to me to do such a thing. Well played. Except
that rice shipments are on their way to Ponong already and within two days,
you’ll no longer have control of the supply. TtZ

Good luck getting
those shipments up to Levapur from the harbor, old man, she thought as she
touched the corner to the flame. It blazed yellow with a blue heart and then
turned to a creeping line of brilliant orange that slowly ate the words. QuiTai
crumbled the blackened paper between her fingers and rubbed it into ash. It
annoyed her that she felt flattered by his message. She wasn’t used to respect
from Thampurians, although the Zul clan had always been different.

She smoothed her
sarong.

“Now he’s really in trouble,” Kyam said.

Her head snapped up as her eyes narrowed.

He gestured to her hands. “You always do that just before
you rip someone’s heart out and feed it to them. Verbally, of course, although
I have no doubt you could do it in the literal sense too. It took me a few
times to catch onto that gesture, but I learned to watch for it.” He watched
her far too intently.

She walked around the far side of the desk to avoid walking
too close to him. He’d pushed up his sleeves and run his fingers through his
hair. They had enough history that she knew exactly what was on his mind when
he made his voice rumble softly and turned those big, dark eyes on her. She
wouldn’t let him distract her. Time to get down to business.

A rebellion is a messy
thing. No matter how many troops you bring in to squash it, like a forest fire,
it will burn deep, unseen, until it flares up again where you least expect it.
It’s an ugly cycle. The only way to stop it is to make sure it never starts. Q

Typical Ponongese.
Never fight back. They gave me this colony. They let me take over without so
much as a squawk of protest. TtZ

Unbidden, QuiTai’s fangs lowered. Her chest rose and fell
with rapid breaths. She turned so Kyam couldn’t see her heated face. She ripped
off the paper and wadded it in her tightly clenched fist.

In a flash,
Grandfather Zul’s strategy unfolded before her. The clarity washed away her
anger as quickly as his words provoked it. She leaned back in the chair and
inclined her head toward the farwriter as a nod of respect, although the old
man would never see the gesture.

“If Grandfather
could see your face, he’d be a little frightened.”

“He’s toying with
me. Never mind. Drink your tea and do try to be quiet.”

Shame on her for
being so easily provoked, not on Grandfather Zul for doing it. She’d do the
same to him if she could.

Before she could type a reply, the bell rang again.

I didn’t realize you were
so close to Kyam, although I suppose it was inevitable. He wants nothing more
than to be loved by someone with an unobtainable heart. I raised him that way.
I find it interesting that you turned to him tonight though. Has he told you
about his wife? TtZ

Kyam stood. “What’s wrong?”

She waved him away as she read the massage again. Another
bell clanged, but it was an alarm in her mind this time, not the farwriter. “It’s
not what he said, it’s what he’s trying to do. He just mentioned your wife, but
that’s not –”

Kyam swore. He raised his hands as if to calm her. “I can
explain –”

She talked as she
scanned the message again. “Quit being so Thampurian, Kyam. I was a sex worker
and an actress. If I hadn’t bedded married men I would have starved to death.
If they hadn’t lied about their marital status, I would have died from shock.
He’s trying to get under my skin. He’s distracting me from more important
matters so I won’t figure out –” Panic shot through her. The real message
was suddenly clear. “Slow! I’m so slow! Damn it!” She glanced at the door. “He
knows where I am. He knows which farwriter my message is coming from.”

“Of course he does.
I thought you knew. He has separate machines for everyone, all tuned to
different frequencies. That’s why I warned you that he didn’t usually answer my
messages.”

She was so angry with herself. “I heard what you said; I
didn’t listen to what you meant. You don’t talk just to hear your voice. I knew
that!” She slammed her palm against the desk.

The farwriter’s bell rang again.

“Oh, just lovely. What now?” she asked through clenched
teeth.

Do you hear footsteps
outside his door, Lady QuiTai? Those are my men. Oh, don’t worry. They aren’t
there for you. You, my dearest Devil, have a starring role in the next act.

As promised, she heard footsteps in the stairwell. Thirty
soldiers were under Grandfather Zul’s command. Had he sent them all? And for
whom? Not Kyam. He was the real star of the final act of this grotesque play.

“Kyam, there are men coming up the stairs. Go play hero and
stop them.”

“How do you know that?”

She flung out her arm and pointed to his door. “Just go!
Now!” She didn’t think they’d hurt him since they were there to make sure Kyam
became governor. That would change the odds in a fight.

Kyam threw the door
open and rushed out on the landing. He leaned over the railing to look at the
lower flights of stairs. “They aren’t colonial militia.”

She stood over the
farwriter now, desperately reading each letter as it appeared.

My men have come for Kyam’s Ponongese neighbors.
I don’t know if you’ve met them, but that hardly matters. What does matter is
that if you refuse to do exactly what I tell you to, they will be executed. I’ve
heard they have three children. I’ve heard children are your weakness. TtZ

QuiTai couldn’t breathe. The children! RhiHanya, RhiLan.
They’d been so kind to her. But they weren’t going to die for that. They were
going to die because she’d been too clever to go to the Dragon Pearl or
LiHoun’s place. She’d brought death with her.

She wanted to run to their door and bar it with her body.
She should fight to the death to save them. It took every ounce of control not
to do it. Her breath came in short gasps as tears brimmed in her eyes.

Damn you, Zul!

She heard many boots running up the stairs. The smack of a
fist against flesh rang out. She had to figure out how to make them stop before
they hurt RhiLan’s family. Fighting wouldn’t do any good. The way to stop the
death squad was to convince Grandfather Zul to call them off.

Think, damn it,
QuiTai. Think!

She buried her head in her hands as she heard the door
across the landing bang open as if it had been kicked in. They’d fought past
Kyam.

QuiTai typed
quickly.

Why do you want Kyam to be the colonial
governor? Q

Grandfather Zul
couldn’t see her face. He couldn’t sense her trembling fingers. He couldn’t
hear Kyam fighting the soldiers outside the apartment. All he knew were her
words. She hoped they’d shocked him. She hoped he’d wonder how she’d figured
out his end game.

“Answer me, you old
bastard,” she muttered at the machine as she wrung her hands. She glanced out
the door, torn. She couldn’t breathe. “Come on. Prove to me this is worth all
the misery and your stupid schemes. Make me believe this isn’t just about your
ego. Because if it is only that, I will hunt you down and I will kill you.”

War is coming. TtZ

QuiTai’s eyes widened. She slowly sank into the chair. She
knew there was a desperate fight not ten feet from her, but it seemed much
further away. The world collapsed into the space between her and those words.
Time suspended.

Do you want a governor
who collaborates with the Ravidians, or do you agree that my grandson is a
better choice? TtZ

She might not have believed Grandfather Zul if it hadn’t
been for the rumors she’d heard from friends back on the continent. They didn’t
realize what their gossip meant, but with so many similar stories coming from
disparate countries, she’d had a feeling conflict would soon break out.

War was coming. That changed everything. This wasn’t merely
the ego of an old man. As much as she hated Grandfather Zul, she couldn’t
disagree with his thinking.

A plan flashed into her mind. The details weren’t perfect,
but saving RhiLan’s children was the priority. She hated the adrenaline pumping
through her blood, her trembling hands, her desperately fumbling mind.

Kyam will be governor by tomorrow. Call off
your men and undo the damage they’ve caused. Q

You don’t expect me to give up my advantage
on a vague promise, do you? How do you propose to make my grandson the governor
in one day? TtZ

If he wanted
specifics, he should have given her a moment to think.

“Ahmni!” RhiLiet
screamed from across the landing.

 
QuiTai’s heart
ripped. Memories of the night of the Full Moon Massacre overwhelmed her in all
its chaotic gore. She swore she could smell the blood and entrails, hear echoes
of QuiZhun screaming
Ahmni
just as
RhiLiet had, panic and fear making the child’s cry so shrill she knew she’d
never forget it. Her mind reeled back from her memories as it sought somewhere
safe to flee, but she couldn’t allow herself to freeze as she had that night. This
time she wouldn’t fall to the floor, helpless and paralyzed.