Demon Revealed (High Demon Series #2) (25 page)

"Back, now, avilepha?" Tory was brushing back what
little hair I had with the washcloth.

Ry knelt to take a look for himself. I felt embarrassed.

"Lendill says to tell you he was serious," Tory said.
"What did he ask you?"

"Nothing," I said, trying to rise. Tory got to his
feet first, then pulled me up. Ry stood, too.

"Whatever it was, he said it was driving him crazy,"
Tory went on. "And he wants to talk to you about it as soon as you get
back."

"Is there any way to not go back?" I asked
sarcastically.

"Reah, he gets on my nerves too, sometimes," Tory
soothed. "But he's good at his job. He has to be."

"Don't ask her to let some of that go—not yet
anyway," Ry countered. "We haven't been treated like that. Em-pah is
still in a snit over it."

"Em-pah?" I didn't understand who Ry was talking
about.

"Grampa Wylend," Ry gave one of his heart-stopping
grins.

"Oh." What did Wylend have to do with all this? He'd
been there when I woke after the whole shooting and claiming incident. Karzac
had sent him away.

My comp-vid was beeping when Tory herded me back to the
bedroom. Teeg was calling. Tory and Ry left the bedroom.

"Teeg?" I saw his face and wanted to cry. Only then
did I realize how much I missed him. Lendill's Schaff's words had unsettled me,
too—how was I supposed to react to a marriage proposal from someone who
probably didn't care anything about me? Where had that come from? And I
couldn't say a word to anyone, least of all Teeg. I wanted to, though. I wanted
to skip away to where he was, wrap my arms around his neck and tell him all my
troubles. Instead, we were worlds apart, speaking through a comp-vid.

"Reah, sweetheart." The half-smile Teeg offered was
doing funny things to my insides. We talked about Grish and his death. We
talked about the planting and pending harvest in six eight-days. We talked
about a lot of things. Teeg brought up something I hadn't considered, though. I
knew I hadn't seen Delvin and a couple of Arvil's other wizards for a few days.
Arvil hadn't told me what they were doing.

"They've been here, gathering several courtesans to take to
Zephili," Teeg informed me. "Don't trust any of them." My
eyebrows lifted in alarm at his comment. I knew not to trust Delvin or the
others—was this a ploy to get rid of us, just as Arvil was getting close to
harvesting his dream?

"Arvil had me send out invitations, too, Reah—to all his
business associates. It'll coincide with the harvest. Do I need to tell you to
be careful?"

"No." I ducked my head. I had to be careful every
moment. I was going to go to Farzi, too, and tell him what Teeg had told me. He
and his brothers could help me keep watch.

Teeg terminated the call after saying he loved me. Well, I
loved him, too.

Arvil's holding a formal meeting here with his business
associates—Teeg told me he sent out invitations
, I sent the mindspeech to
Tory and Ry when I was finished talking with Teeg.

Does that mean we're staying here until the harvest?
Ry
asked.

I don't know
, I returned.
Arvil hasn't said anything
to me, but then he didn't tell
me about the big meeting either. He's
bringing several courtesans—Delvin and two other wizards went to pick them out.
Teeg told me to be wary of all of them.

Something's up
, Tory agreed.

Delvin wants what Arvil has—he was lying when he said that
he didn't know what Haral was up to
. I was pouting as I sent the
mindspeech.

You can tell when somebody's lying?
Tory was staring at
me.

Yes
. I crossed my arms over my chest and the pout got
bigger.
I think he's
bringing those girls to help him get what he
wants. Those other wizards—I don't think they understand how ambitious Delvin has
become. He'll do just about anything to get what he wants, including
sacrificing his best friends
. Bel came to mind.

He doesn't have the intelligence or experience to run
Arvil's empire
, Ry snorted aloud.
He has no
idea about the
business end of things. If all he can do is sneak around trying to undermine
people, with the occasional murder here and there, the best he'll become is
somebody's underling—which is exactly what he is. Even if he kills Arvil, there
are too many others out there who would have his liver for breakfast
.
The
Hardlows
would kill him without thinking about it
.

I shook my head, still trying to reconcile the wizard I'd met
on Mandil with the wizard I knew now. It was as if he were two different people.
That doesn't mean he
can't do damage along the way,
I said
. He'll
come after me and he may go after Teeg, to see if he can worm his way into
Arvil's good graces
.

Now's the time I wish I had compulsion
, Tory grumbled
mentally.

* * *

Delvin and his two wizard buddies returned the following day
with six courtesans. Arvil took two of the women with him when he went to bed;
the other four went with the Hardlows and their warlocks. Farzi wasn't happy at
all with those arrangements.

"We hear from workers in fields—they say that Grish staff—those
that left, are talking about returning to cause trouble," he grumbled to
me as I poured out juice for both of us.

"Does Arvil or the Hardlows know about this?" I
stared at Farzi.

"Do the Hardlows know about what?" Astralan walked
into the kitchen.

"There's a rumor going around that Grish's old staff
wants to organize and cause trouble," I said. "I don't know what kind
of trouble, or if it's anything more than rumor."

"Why don't you check on that? Tell me if you find
anything," Astralan got out a glass and waited for me to pour juice for
him, too.

"I will." I nodded. "But I'll probably have to
go into town to do it—those people are there unless I miss my guess."

Astralan shrugged and grinned. I shrugged right back.

"Farzi," I jerked my head toward the kitchen door
that led to the patio outside. Farzi came with me, carrying his glass of juice.

"Farzi, I talked to Teeg last night—he says to keep an
eye on the women that came in today. I don't know what he suspects, but he
suspects something," I whispered as we walked along the cobbled stone
trail that led to the barns. "I think we should watch Delvin and the
others, too. Delvin was lying when he said that he didn't know what Haral was
up to."

"I suspect this as well," Farzi said. We came to a
wood fence, so we climbed to the top of it and sat down. "I think wizard
Delvin wants more than he can handle. Not smart," Farzi added. I nodded at
his assessment. "My brothers and I—poison has no effect. We live many
times because of this." Farzi snorted and looked away.

"Somebody tried to poison you in the past?" I was
shocked, although I shouldn't have been.

"Many times. We make poison. Others have no effect on us.
I tell you this because Haral had poison. Poison also woman's weapon of choice
if she is not strong."

"You think Delvin and those women look to poison us? What
would be the easiest way to do that?"

"In food or drink, our Reah." Farzi had called me
our
Reah
. I think he meant his and the other reptanoids. I didn't mind the
title. I nodded. The same thing had occurred to me. I sent mindspeech to Ry.

Reah?
His question came back.

Ry, can you put a shield or a guard or something on the
kitchen, so we'll know if anybody tries to poison the food or drinks?

Ry didn't answer for several ticks. When he did, he shocked
me.

Em-pah Wylend is on his way with Dad
.

What?
I almost shrieked my question aloud.

Meet us in the pantry
, Ry ordered. I hauled Farzi along
with me and met Ry in the pantry. Wylend Arden and Erland Morphis appeared only
ticks later.

"Here." Wylend handed a fine gold necklace to me,
one to Ry and smiled when he handed one to Farzi. Farzi stared at Wylend.

"Farzi," I cautioned, "you may not tell this
tale to any except yours." Farzi was nodding, struck speechless, I think. Wylend
looked as if he'd been at High Court or something, he was dressed so finely. He
also had a gold band settled around his head, with jewels winking in it. He was
King of Karathia and looked the part.

"These," Erland explained, "will tell you whether
your food has been poisoned. Here's an extra for Tory, just in case." Erland
handed another necklace to Ry.

"That must be extremely helpful," I muttered,
slipping the chain over my head and settling the small, jeweled charm inside my
shirt. Farzi watched and did the same.

"I would do this and many other things for you, my darling."
Wylend leaned down to kiss me. Now I was the one struck speechless. Wylend and
Erland disappeared just as quickly as they came.

When I regained some of my sense, I discovered that Ry was
grinning widely. I wanted to smack him. "Who was that?" Farzi
mumbled.

"Farzi, that was the King of Karathia," I whispered.
Farzi's eyes grew even wider.

* * *

I learned just how effective the jewels were the next
day—someone had poisoned the flour during the night, causing my jewel to send a
slight jolt to my skin the moment I touched the canister in the kitchen. I
dumped the flour, then went to the pantry to look for more. There wasn't any,
so I skipped from there to the city, bought more and was back before anyone
suspected. If Delvin wanted to pin the poisonings on me, then he needed to
think again. I just wanted to catch whoever had done this and turn them over to
Astralan or one of the others. I did pay close attention though, to anyone not
eating the hotcakes I served for breakfast. Delvin, Carthin, all six women and
the rest of Arvil's wizards refused. They were all in on it. Tory, Ry and I had
a brief mental conversation over that.

Arvil wanted to inspect the fields after breakfast, so he and a
few others went. Farzi, becoming even more helpful, asked Darzi and Chazi to
follow Delvin and Arvil's other wizards. Yanzi and Hirzi were discreetly following
the women. All reptanoids were going as lion snakes. Farzi appeared grimly
determined—he was familiar with poison. I think if anyone his brothers followed
made a wrong turn, they'd get poisoned in a more conventional manner.

Nenzi went to his repair shop—he loved that. I made a mental
note to put him in charge of Arvil's vehicles on Campiaa—if any of us ever made
it back there. I think I knew even then that if Norian Keef or Lendill Schaff
wanted to lock up the reptanoids, they'd have to go through me first.

* * *

"Tell us what you know." Ry tossed Grish's former
assistant onto the floor at Arvil's feet. We'd gone looking for a conspiracy
among Grish's former employees. It wasn't difficult to find.

"You'll pay," the assistant hissed. "We've got
more people behind us than you can possibly handle."

"You want to die, don't you?" Astralan was there
with his brothers, which meant that Wilffox and Wilffin were also there. They'd
taken comfortable chairs in a corner of what used to be Grish's study. It was
large, just as Grish's ego had been.

"We will see that you die, instead," the assistant
whined. Arvil now had him gripped by the shoulder. The shorter assistant didn't
struggle—Delvin, Carthin and Arvil's four other wizards had arrived. I wasn't
sure I wanted to watch Delvin and the others kill this one—they might not be as
neat about their killing as the warlocks.

"We need to get the information first!" Ry shouted
but it was already too late—Carthin had attempted to do what Haral had done for
Arvil before—setting the assistant on fire. I walked out before it was all
over, it apparently took a while for the man to burn to death and his screams
echoed throughout the plantation for almost a quarter click.

* * *

"So, what do you think, cook Reah?" Astralan climbed
onto the top of the wood rail fence where I sat, gazing toward the fields of
newly planted drakus seed. I would have to go back in a very short time—dinner
would have to be started soon.

"I think Arvil's wizards got ahead of themselves for a
reason, killing that man so fast," I said.

"We think this too—the Hardlows and my brothers."

"Those six women have already tried to poison everybody."
My statement made Astralan jerk his head around to stare at me. "Did you
notice that none of them ate the hotcakes the other morning?" I asked. "They
poisoned the flour. I replaced the tainted flour in the canister before I
cooked breakfast. If I find evidence that anyone has tampered with our food or
supplies, I won't use it."

"They're not only trying to poison us, but attempting to
blame you for it, perhaps?" I looked up at Astralan's face. Did I think he
could actually be kind? That answer was no. I'd seen him kill too many times in
the short time I'd known him.

"I hadn't thought that far, I guess," I muttered,
lowering my gaze.

"Wilffox had his doubts, when Arvil told him that he'd
named a young woman and her husband as his heirs. We came to check that out as
much as anything else," Astralan informed me. "Honestly, I haven't
seen the Hardlows this impressed in a very long time."

"I'm a good cook," I replied stiffly.

"Oh, it's not just that. And if they worried whether Teeg
was competent, well, their fears are unfounded. I'll get with my employers. We
can make arrangements not to get poisoned again, I think." Astralan hopped
off the fence.

"I'll be there in a bit to start dinner," I said,
watching the tall warlock walk away from me. I'd listened carefully to
everything Astralan said. He hadn't lied. Now, something else was worrying me.

* * *