Demon Revealed (High Demon Series #2) (26 page)

Dinner was roast pork with a glaze, potatoes and new
vegetables. Farzi loves potatoes. I made them with him in mind. He smiled at me
when his plate was laid in front of him.

"So, Delvin, I want you and Carthin to go to the city
tomorrow and find the other conspirators," Arvil pointed a fork at the two
wizards who sat near each other. One of the courtesans sat between them; the
other women were scattered along the table. I saw one try to feed Wilffin. He
brushed her hand away, much like sending an annoying insect flying off in
another direction. Astralan had already had his talk with the Hardlows, looked
like.

"More than happy to," Delvin nodded respectfully at
Arvil. I wondered then how long Delvin had been working with Grish's former
employees, convincing them that they could walk right in and take the
plantation back. Even with his and Arvil's other wizards backing them, they
still didn't have the firepower the Hardlows' warlocks had. In fact, one or two
of them would likely be more than enough. It made me wonder when Delvin was
planning to attack.

"Reah can come with us," Delvin grinned. Well, there
was the insect in the sugar bowl. Tory cut into his meat more vigorously than
necessary—he knew what Delvin was planning just as well as I did, although we
hadn't discussed it.

"Reah will stay with me, I am expecting visitors
tomorrow," Arvil snapped. Well, the Hardlows had told Arvil what they
suspected as well.

"You didn't tell me you were expecting visitors." Delvin
was walking a dangerous path, arguing with Arvil. How stupid did he think Arvil
was?

"When did you start thinking that I would include you in
all my business?" Arvil was very close to killing, I think. His hands
weren't on the table or anywhere near it. I had the feeling that a ranos pistol
might have been in the waistband of his tailored pants.

"My apologies, Master Arvil." Delvin went back to
his food.

"Good. Go to the city tomorrow as I asked—I don't need
any of those fools thinking they can become an irritation to me." Arvil
went back to his dinner as well.

"Of course, Master Arvil." Carthin's reply was
smoother than Delvin's had been.

* * *

Delvin and Carthin took off right after breakfast the
following morning. The same woman who'd sat between them at dinner the night
before was going with them. I was worried that they'd ask Nenzi to drive them,
but Nenzi had conveniently disappeared. I think Farzi knew something was up,
too and sent his youngest brother off to the equipment sheds in record time. If
he hadn't, I'd been about to make up some excuse that I needed him for
something around the plantation. We still had a few of Grish's old employees
around to clean and maintain the lawns and we had the new workers out in the
fields, but I wasn't foolish enough to ask any of them to assist me with
anything.

Arvil wasn't lying, either, when he said he was expecting
guests. Two men came in by hovercar shortly after Delvin and Carthin left. I
was watching Arvil's remaining wizards carefully. Tory and Ry were close behind
me wherever I went, but I was invited to a meeting with the two arrivals,
Arvil, the Hardlows and Astralan. Ry and Tory were excluded. It didn't matter;
I had mindspeech. Anything I heard I could relay immediately if necessary. I
did learn, however, that Celestan and Galaxsan had been sent off on an errand
of their own by the Hardlows.

Arvil had asked for the rum and fruit drinks I made—he was
just as fond of them as his brother had been, I think. I'd mixed a batch before
the meeting started. Ry had given me a sly grin as he helped carry them into
Grish's old study before hurrying out. I sat in a chair near Arvil while the
Hardlows took the sofa nearby, leaving two chairs for our guests.

"This is Berthias and Windelin," Arvil introduced
the two men to me. Both shook my hand before taking their seats. Berthias was
short and thin—not much taller than I, with watery brown eyes and a thatch of
black hair. His nose and lips were thin as well, giving me the image of a
burrowing animal. Windelin was taller and heavier, although he wasn't fat. Windelin
looked as if he got regular exercise. He had light-brown hair and green eyes
that darted nervously, as if he wanted to know about everything going on around
him. His features were more regular than Berthias', too.

"These gentlemen are our contacts from the
Alliance," Arvil was nearly beaming. Well, he'd managed to break into
Grish's records to find their names. I expected no less, in all honesty. And
contact was a mild term. I had no doubt that these men had made it possible for
Grish to smuggle contraband and who knew what else, straight to the rest of the
Alliance.

It gave me the idea that they worked together, somehow. One
was likely an official at the nearest Alliance distribution center, the other had
to work in shipping and receiving. Everything had to be inspected before
heading anywhere into the Alliance. Zephili was an Alliance world—the Alliance
didn't do business outside the Alliance. Zephili had only belonged for around a
hundred fifty turns or so. Long enough for Grish to get his claws into these
two and bribe them to keep his illicit activities quiet.

 We spent the morning hammering out the amount of payment
Berthias and Windelin would receive for allowing the drakus seed to get sent
through their station. Only Arvil never mentioned it was drakus seed. I had a
feeling that Berthias and Windelin thought it was more of what Grish had been
sending through—the poppy drugs and such. Neither Arvil nor the Hardlows led
them to believe otherwise, merely telling the two Alliance employees that Grish
had died of heart failure (Arvil even provided a copy of the physician's
statement). Arvil made them believe that he and the Hardlows were Grish's named
heirs and that was the end of it. An agreement was reached and Arvil made both
happy by upping their percentage. The meeting was almost over when I received
mindspeech from Tory.

Reah?

What?

Reah, it looks like half the city is burning to the ground
.

* * *

If Arvil wanted to send a warning to his remaining wizards,
this was the way to do it. Delvin and Carthin's crisped bodies were dumped on
Grish's wide, front porch. "Well, that ends our little takeover problem,
now doesn't it?" Arvil sounded positively gleeful. I felt ill. Tory was
trying to calm me down through mindspeech—I wanted to find a powder room and
heave. The sight and accompanying stench made my stomach churn.

Farzi, Perzi and Yanzi came to stand beside me—Tory couldn't
put his hands on me. Farzi did, instead. He even came with me when Celestan delivered
information in the meeting we attended later. Delvin had been behind the impending
revolt. The woman who'd gone with him had been killed right away; Celestan and
Galaxsan just hadn't bothered to transport her body back with Delvin and
Carthin's. None of the other women said a word.

"It has been brought to my attention," Arvil was now
looking at the women who sat together on a sofa, "that someone tried to
poison us. I have the vids." Arvil held up a chip. "Care to see it,
or do you want to confess now and save me the trouble?"

I'd never bothered to learn any of their names. I also hadn't
realized that there were cameras inside the kitchen. Thank goodness there
weren't any in the pantry, and those in the kitchen were vid only, with no
sound. Grish hadn't bothered with upgrades. When the women refused to admit to
anything, Arvil played the vid. I saw at least three of the women, one of whom
was their dead co-conspirator, placing a powdery substance inside the flour
canister. I was more than thankful it showed me dumping out the flour and then
walking into the pantry to get more. If I'd skipped away to buy flour while
still inside the kitchen, Arvil might have tried to kill me, too. I'd skipped
from inside the pantry, after learning there wasn't any more flour inside it. I
schooled my face into the best non-expression I could.

* * *

Reah, you have to stay or Arvil will think you're weak
,
Tory sent mindspeech later. Arvil had tied all five women to the rail fence
Astralan and I had sat on only the day before, and then blindfolded them. He'd
then accepted a ranos pistol from one of the warlocks and shot each of the
women in the head from close range. A ranos pistol from only a hand or two away
will blow a large melon into microscopic fragments. Every one of those bodies
was slumped against the fence, headless and bloody, when Arvil was done.

If his remaining wizards had any thought as to their potential
sentence if Arvil found them guilty of conspiracy with Delvin, they were all
gulping nervously now. I knew they knew about it, I just didn't know how much
they knew or how far they'd gotten involved. Even if Arvil didn't know, I think
the Hardlows and their warlocks did.

* * *

"Reah, baby," Tory's hand was cool against the back
of my neck as I vomited the contents of my stomach in my bathroom shortly after
the executions. Ry was standing nearby, handing me a cold, wet cloth. Of course,
my comp-vid was going off right at that moment. Tory moved back and Ry handed
it to me. Teeg was calling again.

"Teeg, I'm a little busy right now," I managed to
gasp before dry heaving again.

"Reah, I've gotten communication from Arvil so I know
what happened."

"You didn't see it happen, I did," I muttered.

"Sweetheart, come on. Wash your face and stand up. You
can't show them any weakness."

"Teeg, go away," I moaned.

"Reah, get up and walk out of there now. You can't do
this."

"Teeg, someday we'll have a talk about this, all right?"
I hit the terminate call button and the screen went blank.

"Come on, he's right." Tory came back and lifted me
off the floor.

I'm going to slap Lendill Schaff into next eight-day,
I
sent the mental grumble to Ry and Tory before rinsing out my mouth and stalking
out of my suite.

I cooked dinner as if nothing had happened. The only good
thing to come from all this was there were fewer to cook for. Farzi was
watching me closely, however. Nenzi, too, as were their brothers. Arvil wanted
another sit-down with me after dinner. I wanted to huddle in my room. Even
though the courtesans had all been trying to kill me, their deaths were too
horrible to contemplate.

"Reah, I haven't failed to see how Farzi and the others
act around you." That had me jerking my head up to stare at Arvil. What
was he getting at? Was he accusing me of something?

"Reah, what I'm saying is that I want Farzi and the
others to act as your bodyguards. I'm taking Tory and Ry."

"That's fine," I said. It was, although I'd miss
Tory at night. Tory and Ry could watch out for Arvil and listen for his deepest
secrets. Honestly, if Lendill Schaff and the ASD didn't have an inescapable
grip on me, I'd have skipped away and Arvil would never have found me after the
killings earlier.

Tory and Ry replaced Delvin and Carthin in Arvil's suite later;
he had three bedrooms inside his suite. Tory and Ry got the rooms leading up to
the nice, large one belonging to Arvil. Farzi, Nenzi and the other reptanoids
moved into the two smaller bedrooms inside my suite. If I worried about
spending my nights alone, I shouldn't have. Farzi and Nenzi crawled into bed
with me as lion snakes.

"You should not worry that we try to couple," Farzi
told me the second night. "When we were made, we were neutered."

"When we not turn out like they want," Nenzi added
sadly.

"Nenzi, I am so sorry." I pulled his head against
mine.

"We learn to deal with this," Chazi said. He never
talked much, like most of his brothers.

"I still love Reah." Nenzi had his arms wrapped
around me.

"And I still love you." I kissed Nenzi's cheek. "I
think we have a lot in common, don't you?"

"Yes. We know Reah different when we see her first
time," Perzi nodded his head.

"And we keep secrets," Farzi said.

"I know." I placed a hand around the back of Farzi's
neck and bumped his forehead with mine.

* * *

Two days later, Nenzi drove me to the city, accompanied by
Farzi, Yanzi and Perzi. We saw what the two warlocks had done when we arrived. Entire
housing districts had been burned to the ground. The warlocks had hit a
centralized natural gas station that still supplied fuel to an ancient portion
of the city, none of which had been upgraded to solar power. The resulting fire
had spread swiftly, and some residents hadn't made it out before the fire swept
through. So many homes burned at the same time that the outdated fire
departments nearby had been unable to handle it.

I'd heard some of the news vids—they were blaming the fire on
a huge gas explosion, with no explanation as to the cause. If Celestan and his
brother had found a way to do that so that fingers wouldn't be pointed in their
direction, I had to marvel at their efficiency. Just because Zephili belonged
to the Alliance didn't mean they couldn't have crime or uprisings. I was
surprised that Lendill hadn't sent anyone in to investigate. Or perhaps he had
and left me out of that loop.

* * *

"They knew where to hit this, didn't they?" Lendill
examined the crater that formerly housed the hub where natural gas was pumped
in and then sent through smaller pipelines into an older housing district. This
one still had natural gas lines instead of the upgraded solar power relays. The
pipes were insulated well—they should have been impervious to anything short of
a very large bomb blast. Of course, nobody had factored in powerful warlocks
when the thing had been designed.

"Yes." Norian crunched over blackened rubble. Surprisingly,
only fifteen people died in the explosion and subsequent fires.
But we'll
hold off on the true cause of
all this until we finish this with San
Gerxon and the Hardlows
, he added mentally.
We'll just say our findings
are inconclusive and we're still investigating
.