Demon Revealed (High Demon Series #2) (5 page)

"She was pounding on me? I don't remember that,"
Tory grumped.

"And yelling at you. I think if she hadn't been your
mate, you might have killed her, too." Ry walked in. I hadn't seen him for
a while—he'd stayed out of the picture while Tory had been courting me.

That's how I ended up being escorted to the kitchens by a High
Demon, a vampire, the child of vampires, a Karathian warlock and a healer. The palace
cook was the same one, I saw—he still hadn't gotten his job on the light half
of the planet.

"You're the one who made the fish," he said when I
walked in, supported by Gavril on one side and Aurelius on the other. Tory had allowed
his younger brother to help me down the long warren of hallways into the
kitchen. "I am Chef Harding," he held out his hand. "I can never
get the fish to come out right," he said.

"You're cooking it a little too long," I said. "Make
the sauce first, then do the fish. It always turns out better that way."

"I don't suppose I could get your sauce recipe?"

"Not that one," I said. Gavril and Aurelius let me
go so I could work at the counter with Lissa's cook. "I can show you one
that won't get you involved in a lawsuit with Desh's, though." That's how
Chef Harding and I collaborated to make fish with a new sauce and serve it to
our audience. Karzac had held Aurelius back while I worked. "We will allow
this—it is a distraction," he whispered. I heard but pretended I hadn't.

"This is amazing," Chef Harding moaned with pleasure
as he tasted his portion.

"I am happy with this," I agreed—the recipe had been
bubbling in my head for a while—I just hadn't found the time to try it. We had
a menu planned around the fish before all was said and done. Norian, Lissa and
Lendill walked into the kitchen right then and I was proud of myself—I didn't
slam plates down or grumble as I served the Director and his second-in-command.

"I'm immune to poisons, so you'll have to kill me a
different way," Norian's half-grin was a little on the wry side. Lendill
said nothing at all.

"Permission to speak freely, Director?" I asked,
gazing steadily at Norian Keef.

"Permission granted."

"I wouldn't stoop to killing you," I snapped. "You're
not worth spending the rest of my life in prison over, or dying on one of the
worlds that still hands out the death penalty. Vice-Director," I pointed
an angry glare at Lendill Schaff, "I hope your life is never in danger. I
might have second thoughts about saving that tight ass of yours." Skipping
to get to Aurelius had been easy—I don't know why I hadn't thought of doing it
before. I skipped away now; it was a simple feat to accomplish.

* * *

"Bel?" The light was dim inside his cell but bright
in the hallway just outside it, making it difficult to identify the wizard. Bel
was sitting on a cot shoved against the back wall, his gaze locked on the white
wall opposite his cage. His expression was a hopeless one—he didn't expect to
get away from his Alliance prison.

"Reah? Thank the gods—they wouldn't give me any
information on you. We thought you were dead." Bel stood and walked toward
the bars, staring at me as if I were a ghost.

"No, just almost there for a while," I shrugged.

"Reah, this isn't what it looks like," Bel said,
holding out his hand to me. He was careful not to brush against the bars of his
cage.

"I was hoping it wasn't," I said, grasping his
fingers in mine. "But I have to tell you, it doesn't look so good from the
Alliance standpoint."

"I know. Reah, you have no idea how bad things are. The
High Commander is in charge of things on Mandil, now. The Prince Royal is
little more than a figurehead. Has been for a while." Bel shook his head
in dismay at his own statement. "We didn't realize until later that three
of the Prince's wizards aren't Mandili—they came from somewhere else. They were
hired by the High Commander, and everything the Prince said or did was funneled
straight to that stinking pile of—well. The High Commander paid the desert
villages to raise drakus seed alongside their citrus crops. It was easy enough
to accomplish." Bel squeezed my fingers and let them go.

"The Prince came to the Rangers shortly before you came
to us, Reah. He asked us to place ourselves under the High Commander's authority,
to spy on his activities. If it hadn't been for the drakus seed, the High
Commander would have ordered the outlying villages to empty and come to Crown
City long ago, when the demons first attacked. He wasn't willing to let all
that go—he just hadn't calculated on the strength or the tenacity of the enemy
we faced. He didn't know what they were. He sent us and those other two cohorts
to the desert outposts to protect the locals and their drug crop. Those fool wizards
the Prince has don't have much in the way of protection against spawn. The High
Commander almost destroyed Mandil."

"Bel, are you telling me you were undercover? The whole
time?"

"Reah, please believe me. We'll die over this—they're
sending us back to Tulgalan for judgment, didn't you know? One of those kids who
died was the son of a High Council member. They'll sentence us to Evensun for
that reason alone. Leave it to the High Commander to recruit shit for brains
Nods Whitlin."

"You're telling the truth, I'd know if you weren't,"
I said. He
was
telling the truth. I'd been able to tell truth from a lie
since I was six. I'd known Marzi was telling me the truth when she'd whispered her
poison in my ear. "But what were you going to do? I mean, there had to be
some sort of plan, didn't there? After you reported back to the Prince?" At
that moment, I was desperately hoping there was a plan.

"Reah, we—the Rangers—were hoping to take the High
Commander's wizards down, as soon as we figured out what they were doing and
who they were selling to. We don't have any contacts with the Alliance—all we
have is a shaky treaty to leave each other alone and a few wizards who are
still loyal to the crown. I don't know if our ability will be enough—we've
missed Lin and Jorvis. More than you can ever know. We miss you, too, Reah. I
don't know what it was that we saw that night; I only know that without it, we
would all be dead."

Both of us gasped and turned as we heard footsteps coming down
the hall. "Go, Reah," Bel hissed. "You don't need to be caught
here!" I took Bel's advice and skipped away.

* * *

"Can we believe this?" Lendill Schaff held up the
small chip from the hidden camera, wiggling it suggestively at Norian.

"I think we can," Norian grinned. "Reah gets us
what we want and we didn't even have to do anything for it."

"Except act like assholes," Lendill muttered,
handing the chip over.

"Yeah—we have a lot of begging and scraping to do after
we get this cleared up."

"If we get it cleared up. The more drakus seed that gets
out, the more deaths it leaves in its wake. If this becomes widespread, the entire
Alliance could fall. The Alliance worlds are looking to the ASD and the
Alliance armies to deal with this. It has become too large a problem much too
quickly, and we have too little intelligence to kill it swiftly. The member
worlds will break away and try to handle the problem themselves if it looks
like we can't." Norian rubbed his forehead—he felt a headache coming on. "Ever
since those fools on Campiaa decided to form their own Alliance by accepting
every black-hearted planet in the known universes, we've been under attack. If
we can't get this cleaned up soon, the Reth Alliance could die a painful death.
They're trying to break us up, Lendill. Any way they can."

"Then I have a suggestion," Lendill smiled.

"What's that?" Norian was willing to listen to
anything at this point.

"We're sending the prisoners to Tulgalan in three days. Let's
stage a breakout along the way and attribute it to those rogues we have in
custody. Let's arrange for a quick death for our shooter, too. He killed all
those kids—not the Rangers." Lendill had come to think of the captive wizards
in those terms—Bel and Reah both had referred to them that way. "If we let
them go, perhaps the Rangers can finish their assignment. Or at least disrupt
the flow of drakus seed from Mandil."

"Let's send ours back to Mandil with them—Ry and Tory
both, in addition to Reah," Norian nodded in enthusiastic agreement. "The
Rangers already know Reah, that won't be a stretch, and we'll say that our
three were captured in the bust on Tulgalan—that they were rival dealers and
such. Maybe our three, combined with the Rangers who work for the Mandili Prince,
can successfully bring down the High Commander and his rogue wizards. Then the
drakus seed farms on Mandil can be destroyed." Norian liked the idea. Very
much. "You think we can pull this off, Lendill?"

"I'm all for giving it a try. How much danger do you
think ours will be in?"

"Some, but remember, Tory and Ry can transport themselves
away at any time. Reah, too, unless I miss my guess. How did she get into the
dungeon otherwise?" Norian grinned mischievously. "We only have to
convince the Rangers to cooperate. If we offer them freedom and the opportunity
to complete the assignment for their Prince, I think they'll leap at the
chance."

"I'll call them in for a meeting," Lendill agreed.

* * *

"We have a change of plans—you'll be going farther
undercover than you've ever been before," Lendill paced as he made the
announcement. "You'll have a new destination, too."

"Where is that?" Ry asked. He wasn't huddled against
Tory; I was. He wasn't terrified of Vice-Director Lendill Schaff; I was. Ry,
Tory and I took up the sofa in Queen Lissa's study as we listened to Lendill
Schaff and Norian Keef.

"We'll tell you in a moment," Lendill assured us. Norian
was seated behind Lissa's desk, his fingers steepled. He was watching all three
of us—very carefully. Some sort of plot was going on here; I just didn't know
what it might be. "First, I want to show you some images recorded
yesterday." Lendill held up a tiny chip.

I stared openmouthed as the entire conversation between Bel
and me played on the vidscreen that popped out of a credenza behind Lissa's
desk. Norian had moved aside so we could get the full picture. Why had I been
so stupid? Why? I wanted to bang my head against the low, wood table in front
of Tory, Ry and me. Tory moved his arm until his fingers were covering my
forehead—he'd read my thoughts and was taking preventive measures. I'm sure I
presented a lovely picture for both Lendill and Norian—my gaping mouth coupled
with Tory's hand.

"Reah, you should learn that we have cameras
everywhere—even if Lissa is unaware," Norian chuckled. Well, it was fine
sport I'm sure, making fun of my stupidity and inexperience.

"We're not making fun of you," Lendill pointed out. "If
you'd realized there were cameras, we wouldn't be in possession of vital
information, now would we?" He was smiling. That smile twisted my heart
and made me feel ill. He tapped a button on Lissa's desk, making the vidscreen
go blank and slide back inside the credenza.

"Now," Lendill went on, "all three of you are
officially under arrest."

Chapter 3
 

Vidscreens had been brought and hung on the walls opposite our
cells. We got a very clear image of Tory, Ry and me, all being led away in
cuffs toward the dungeon. A reporter was telling everyone in the Alliance how
we'd been a part of the drakus seed fiasco on Tulgalan, which had nearly
destroyed Taritha Village. They'd even recorded an interview with a tearful
Silva. "I knew something was wrong with them," she wept. "They
killed my Danthus."

A lie was in her words, and I figured it was an attempt to
draw attention to herself, somehow. It made me feel ill.

"Don't let it get to you," Bel's cell was on my
right. He, Hish and Max had all been brought into Lissa's office after cuffs were
placed on Ry, Tory and me. All of us had been made aware of Director Keef's
plan before being hauled down to the dungeon, in full view of Nods, whose cell
was located just off the stairs. He had plenty of guards around him, too. I
wondered if he knew that most of them were vampires.

"Did you tell?" Nods was standing at the bars of his
cell and shouting at Bel as he'd walked past, his head down, his wrists cuffed.

"We can't get anything out of these," Lendill had snarled
at Nods, who'd backed away in fear. "Maybe we'll have more luck with
you—looks like you have your voice back, now."

Nods had appeared guilty and frightened, giving me the idea
that he hadn't said anything until then. He glared at me, too. "So, trying
to take our business away, huh?" He'd accused. Somebody had already been
talking within his hearing. Norian had plotted this with a master's hand; I had
to give him that. Nods would be sent back to Tulgalan to face justice. At first,
they'd thought to kill him, but then thought it better if he made the journey
to Tulgalan to stand trial. He was the shooter, after all. The rest of us were
merely accused as accomplices. Evensun waited for Nods—I had little doubt of
that.

Now, I sat in my cell and watched what everyone else in the Alliance
was watching—the newsfeeds concerning how Ry, Tory and I had been engaged in a
drug turf war, trying to take down a rival for the drakus seed trade. Seven
people had died as a result, including Danthus. I was sorry about him—he'd
seemed level-headed, whereas his brother Inis hadn't. Inis had survived,
somehow. Is that the way it went, more often than not? I shook my head.

"Baby, don't let them hurt you." Tory's cell was on
my left. Karzac had been down once already, complaining in a language I didn't
understand the entire time. Norian and Lendill had watched while Karzac looked
me over, putting his hands on me to ease aches and pains.

"She'll be ready to travel tomorrow, but that's
all," Karzac looked as if he wanted to punch Norian as he walked out my
cell door.