Rise of the Seven (13 page)

“
Ruby prepared a blend for
your rib.”

I wheezed.

“
She mentioned it might be
strong.”

I looked up at him, completely unable to form
a response.

He smiled. “Rest, Freya.”

It must have worked, because the next thing I
knew, Ruby was waking me for our meeting. She seemed well,
considering the fey had apparently placed a bounty on her. I took a
breath before questioning her, realized it didn’t hurt, and took
several long, deep lungfuls of air.

“
Ruby, what did you give
me?”

She shrugged. “Tea. Now, come on.” She threw
clothes at me, impatiently moving about the room while I put myself
in order.

“
You’re kind of keyed up,” I
mentioned casually as I walked toward the door.

“
Maybe I just don’t like
waiting,” she huffed. She walked two paces in front of me all the
way to the study, clearly not wanting to discuss whatever had her
edgy. It definitely wasn’t fear, though.

When we entered, she pointedly did not look
at Grey, which of course caused me to. He was staring at her with
an intensity that would have caught a normal woman on fire. Ruby,
however, had been born of fire.

I shook my head. This was just what we
needed.

All eyes fell on me as I stepped to the head
of the table. I threw the pendant down, the twisted strands landing
with a clanging thump on the wood surface.

“
Ice, silver, blood, and
bone. Our gift.”

Chapter Fifteen

Gift

They stared at the pendant, the spike formed
from four intertwined strands. There was no question in my mind
whether the ice and silver were related to my attacks, especially
since Veil had mentioned my safety. How they were related was
another matter entirely. They were cold to the touch, while the
blood and bone were warm, and further warning. A gift, our prisoner
had insisted. Leave it to the fey to offer a puzzle instead of a
clear message.

“
It’s the same,” Ruby said,
wide-eyed. She hadn’t had a chance to examine the pendant yet, to
see the thin thread of ice, frozen solid even now.

“
I suspected as much.” I
glanced at Chevelle. “And the silver?”

“
It appears so,” he
answered, none too pleased with the revelation.

“
The question remains,” I
offered, “is this admission of their involvement, a threat of
further attacks? Or is this truly a gift, answer to our
search?”

Rider leaned forward. “Why would they admit
their own involvement? Why not just fight with full force if that
was what they wanted?”

“
For that matter, why would
they help you by handing you the enemy?” Ruby asked.

I noticed Chevelle tense the slightest bit
beside me. Both questions could be answered by Veil’s interest in
me.

“
I don’t understand,” Rhys
said, “why they would risk it at all.”

I waved a hand dismissively. “They’ve been
doing it for ages, never mind that half of them are killed. They
don’t consider it risk, just a good night out.”

“
There’s something else,”
Grey said evenly. We all took notice of his tone. “They didn’t
offer a trade.” It was obvious what he meant. They had wanted
Ruby.

The room was silent for a long moment before
Anvil finally spoke up. “It means nothing. Veil would not soil his
hands so publicly in such an arrangement. By coming, by his
presentation, he has already placed himself on unstable
ground.”

“
About that,” I interjected,
“this was the largest force I’ve seen for a very long time. There
were no fire fairies.”

Anvil nodded. “Hard to say at this point, but
I am hoping they support your choice.” He paused, considering.
“That’s not to say they would not welcome her return, unwilling as
it were.”

Steed graciously changed the subject. “As for
the pendant, is the blood meant for death, or lineage?”

“
That, as well as the bone,
can be interpreted in many ways,” Anvil answered. “The fey are not
easy to read. And they like it so.”

Rhys was outwardly disgusted and annoyed with
his first fey experience. “Then this token is worthless.”

I shook my head. “No. Even if we don’t
understand their motives, even if we never decipher their clues, it
tells us one thing for certain. The two attacks were connected and
the fey know how.”

“
If this is a threat,” Steed
shifted uncomfortably, “then no response is an act of battle in
itself.”

Ruby nodded. “And Veil’s going to work up a
good lather over your refusal.”

“
And then they’ll be back.”
Steed added. “In force.”

“
No.” Chevelle’s voice was
cutting. I wasn’t positive he’d meant to speak at all.

I sighed, needing to explain to the others
but not wanting to voice the problem. But I had to. The fey loved a
good war and if they could manage it, they’d be back soon enough.
The group we’d dealt with had been nothing, merely along for the
ride, toying with us over Ruby. A true raid would have left us more
damage than a few scrapes and bruises.

“
Some fey have the ability
to manipulate the magic of others. A strike against them can be
turned, distorted...” I shook my head. “Let’s just say it’s ugly.
The problem now is, with my magic in such a volatile state, I would
be risking not only myself, but the release of these powers to the
fey.”

“
To Veil,” Chevelle
said.

There was a long pause while everyone in the
room imagined the flying amber god with the combined energy of his
own, myself, and all that Asher had amassed.

Ruby had gone pale. I decided to throw her a
bone. “Finn and Keaton may be able to assist with this. They have
brought us Rhys and Rider for a reason, and I believe their
connection plays a part. When the wolves return, we may have one
less problem to worry about.”

Ruby immediately lost all concern for our
crisis. “The legends are true? The wolves are the ancients?” She
stared at me a moment before her scarlet curls whipped around to
find Rhys and Rider, both of whom donned arcane smirks for her. I
would have to remember to thank them for that later.

The meeting ended with nothing at all
resolved. Anvil hadn’t been able to discover anything useful in his
first attempts, but he intended to try again now that we had
released our captive fairy back into the wild. Grey and Steed were
planning a trip to Camber under the guise of guard duties to see if
they could learn anything useful. Ruby had flatly refused their
offer to go along, which I attributed to the sparks that were
flying between her and Grey and to the possibility of her missing
Finn and Keaton’s return.

I watched her follow Rhys and Rider from the
room, but they were tight-lipped. They seemed to be thoroughly
enjoying themselves and I wondered what she’d done to them to merit
the torment.

Chevelle and I were all that remained in the
study. He stood staring at the pendant on the table.

I watched him. “You think Veil made the offer
because he knows of my uncooperative powers.”

He let out a breath before raising his gaze.
The emotion in it was crippling. “No. He has always wanted you.”
His eyes fell to my lips and my throat went dry.

“
You think we should trust
him?” I rasped.

A sardonic smile answered my disbelief. “I
think he wants you safe.” Chevelle’s templed hand slid across the
table, moving closer. “For him.”

I purposefully directed my
gaze to the pendant. “Then it’s a warning. But a warning against a
fey campaign, or someone else?” The twisted strands of silver and
ice caught the flicker of the torchlight, shimmering like the
ornament of a fairy, not an elvin lord. “If it is someone else, we
need to decipher it. And if it is the fey, then there is no way to
stop them from coming for me.” I contemplated the devious,
underhanded war tactics of the fey, thought through what would
happen, and then remembered what Chevelle had said, thinking aloud.
“And he wouldn’t let them have me, would he? If they come he can’t
stop them. But he won’t...
can’t
allow them to have my power. He would take
me.”

I felt the change in Chevelle beside me, but
I dared not look up. There would be nothing I could do to fight
Veil without risking the release of my power, but I had no doubt of
Chevelle’s intent.

“
I will find control,” I
promised. “And we will solve the pendant.”

Regardless of who was trying to kill me, I
still had a kingdom to run. So as I worked to catch up and set
right all that had gone undone in my absence and awry since my
return, I puzzled out the clues. I knew one thing for certain now:
the attacks were Asher’s offspring. The boy’s coloring was likely
due to a mixed birth. And the fact that the fey were involved made
me wonder if the ice attacks were not of a half-fey child. Ruby,
after all, had turned out strong and dangerous. Fortunately, she
was on my side.

I had mentally crossed the rogues off the
list, as the massacre in the yard would have never come to be if
they had control of anyone in line for the throne. They were
brutal, but they had enough sense to use a tool like that in the
most effective way: they would have gathered a following. If it was
the fey who had control over an heir, then they were either just
playing with me until they could place him or her, or they had more
than one and they were trying to thin out the stock, neither of
which were highly likely. Still, I couldn’t stop the shiver that
ran through me at the thought of a fey-influenced lord on the
northern throne. But even if they didn’t have a child or children,
then they knew who did, and at the very least were tracking the
situation. I had the strands of silver and ice to prove that.

So, that just left two other options that I
could think of: Asher and Junnie. Asher had not been gone long. He
could have spent years training and molding his children, he could
have told each they were his rightful heir, his second, and they
could be coming for me because I stood in his place. The attacks
had not come together. The silver boy was alone, and he had called
me the pretender. But if Asher had done this, if he was the cause,
then there was nothing to be done but wait for the others to decide
it was time. There was no way to find them, to flush them out.

There was a way to find Junnie, however. And
Junnie was, right now, raising a child of Asher’s. A half-human
child whose mind she could possess. Junnie had been with me in the
village, so she couldn’t have raised the other children. But she
could have taken them when Asher was on the run. They were not with
her when we had found her, but she had a following by all accounts,
and there could be someone supporting her. Someone who wanted the
new council, who wanted control of the entire realm. Maybe an army
of someones. Maybe a new council had already formed. I shook my
head, silently praying once more that it wasn’t Junnie.

I didn’t even consider Grand Council on my
list, even though they too had wanted reign over all. Not because
their key players had been removed and they were at this moment
regrouping, not because they wouldn’t do it if they could. I didn’t
consider them because in a matter of days, there would be no more
council. I would finally avenge the wrong done my mother. I would
repay the debt owed my people. In a matter of days, there would be
one less barrier before me, one less cross to bear. Days.

“
Frey?”

“
Oh, sorry, Ruby. Please
continue.”

She glanced at the scrolls, a large pile of
messages from across the realm, and I could tell she was
calculating how much longer it would take to finish.

“
It comes with the uniform,
Ruby. The guard has never claimed one who was merely a fighter. If
you want to choose the dead, you have to manage the living. It
keeps us from turning murderous.”

She cocked a brow at me, knowing full well
Asher’s guard had been more deadly than productive. But they had
all been given other chores. Not decent, moral duties, I thought,
remembering Riven and his charge, but duties nonetheless.

Ruby picked up another scroll. “Alianna Denae
of Camber is with child. The child’s father, Klave, was killed by
the rogues outside our gates. She is grieving badly and it is
feared she’ll not make it to full term.”

Manage the
living
. “Send her an invitation to the
castle. Note that she is to come when the child is well and they
will be safe to travel. Maybe we can give her something to look
forward to.”

Ruby nodded, pleased that she might yet have
something enjoyable to oversee.

“
If she takes a turn,” I
added in a hushed tone, “assure her the child will have a place
here.”

Ruby’s eyes held mine for one long moment
before returning to the scrolls. She had been an orphan, abandoned
by all but her half-brother Steed. In this single task, I had given
her reason enough to serve all others. By this lone thing, she
understood. She was of the guard.

Her shoulders straight, she relayed the next
message.

Chapter Sixteen

Threat

I sat on the edge of my bed, twirling the fey
spike in my hand. Ice, silver, blood, and bone. A gift. The words
had begun to circle, twisting in my mind as the strands twisted to
form the pendant. I tried to force them away, to see the puzzle
from another angle, but they were only replaced with other chants.
The dream of my mother, her warning that others would come. And the
other warning, words not of a vision, but a living nightmare.
Fellon Strago Dreg.