Taliesin Ascendant (The Children and the Blood) (21 page)

The woman’s eyebrows rose sarcastically. “What? You want me to admit something? Give you an excuse to leave my daughter an orphan and prove this ‘noble compassion’ crap you’re trying is just an act?”

“Now, Tanya,” Sebastian chided.

“Screw you, councilman,” the woman snapped. The guards shifted warningly and she glared at them too. “You all think you’re so good. Better than Howard, blindly loyal as he was, and better than me. Well, Howard would’ve died for us, so if he’s dead then that’s what he did. And you can go to hell for thinking otherwise.” She ran her gaze up and down Ashe. “All of you.”

Ashe flinched as, with a resounding crack, Tanya slammed the tray down, splattering cream corn and mashed potatoes over the concrete floor. Turning sharply, the woman stormed across the room, only to be brought up short by the guards.

Seething, Tanya spun. “I’m sick of this, you bastard!” she shouted at Sebastian, her voice breaking. “You have nothing! No proof! Nothing but my husband’s dead body at her goddamn house and you’ve locked us up for months over it! And what? Her family is dead? So
what
? So is mine! You lost a little sister? Well, I’ve got a five year old who can’t figure out why everyone hates daddy all of a sudden. And while you’ve had countless lackeys kissing your feet in your sorrow, your
highness
, we’ve been the only ones mourning an innocent man!”

Sebastian’s enjoyment was almost too much for him to contain. Tears shone on Tanya’s red face and her hair quivered with the ferocity of her trembling. Ashe could hear the staccato snickers bursting from the councilman, while his guards stared impassively at the wall.

Magic coursed through her veins, begging to be released. And it hurt. Oh, it hurt to breathe. To stay calm, if only on the surface. Somewhere inside, she wanted to smile at the knowledge Howard was dead. To rejoice that someone who even might have endangered her family wasn’t still alive. She wanted to punch the woman for mocking Lily, her father, or anyone else she loved as being less important, simply because she remained here to mourn.

But Sebastian brought Tanya here for a reason.

And any reaction would mean he’d won.

Drawing a careful breath, she forced herself to meet the woman’s gaze.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” she whispered.

Tanya stared. Rage and confusion chased themselves across her face and her hands balled into fists as magic rose around her. Muffling his chuckles tightly, Sebastian darted glances between them.

The air around Tanya crackled with electricity. By the door, the guards backed away, eyeing the councilman questioningly.

Ashe didn’t move.

Overhead, the lights buzzed, the ambient charge making them burn brighter till one of the bulbs burst in a shower of sparks.

And then the magic faded.

Gritting her teeth, the woman glared. “I could have,” she growled.

At Ashe’s silence, she snarled wordlessly and spun, shoving past the guards as she fled the room.

Not breathing, Ashe slid her gaze to Sebastian, meeting his eyes.

He gave another chuckle, the sound forced. For a heartbeat, he hesitated, as though trying to think of something to say, and then he turned, striding out the door with the guards on his heels.

Silence settled over the cell.

Magic churned through her, roiling above aching rage and fighting desperately for a place to go. Her gaze dropped to the floor as her body remained standing, paralyzed.

A breath escaped her, loud amid the quiet.

Nervous as always, the smaller guard inched back into the room. At the sight of her, he paused, gripping the doorframe with a bloodless hand. Nausea flickered over his face and, swallowing hard, he shoved away from the door and darted down the hall, chasing Sebastian with requests that someone take his place. Cagily, the larger guard walked in, forcing himself to do what his companion could not, though he only made it a few paces before he also stopped and glanced back to the door.

His gaze locked on the empty space for a moment.

And then slowly, he turned and crossed the room.

Rigid with tension, she watched as he stopped before her, his bulk towering more than a foot higher than her own form. His eyes met hers, every trace of fear gone.

He sank to one knee before the splattered food at her feet. With a napkin from his pocket, he carefully cleaned the edges of the plate and then straightened, placing the tray on the small table nearby. Glancing to her briefly, he tore a piece from the hard-crusted roll lying half-submerged in cream corn and then dipped it into everything else on the plate. His gaze went to the door, noting the absence of anyone there.

And thoughtfully, he ate the bite of bread whole before looking back her way.

“To be certain,” he whispered.

She stared, uncomprehending, and then she blinked. Poison. Her brow flickered down.

“You are not alone, your highness,” he continued, his voice so low she could barely hear him. “Just hang on.”

Infinitesimally, he bowed his head before meeting her eyes again. Speechless, she watched him return to his chair by the door. Dread and nervousness dropped back over his face like a mask, indistinguishable from before.

White with terror, the smaller guard stumbled back into the room, looking between his companion and their prisoner as though shocked the man remained alive. With a shaking hand, he found his chair and lowered himself down. The guards from the hall returned and, glancing into the cell, they gave disparaging looks to the others for leaving the exit open in their own fear.

A clunk sounded as the metal door settled back into its frame.

She sank onto the cot. Numbly, she reached up, pausing a moment before wrapping her fingers around the roll.

Her gaze flicked to the larger guard, curious and cautious at the same time.

And then she looked away.

Rage and hurt still pulsed somewhere inside, emanating from emotions scoured raw. Sebastian’s words hovered at the edge of memory, accompanied by images of the night her family died.

But the pain wasn’t as strong as before.

Because she’d won.

And now she just had to hang on.

*****

She figured it was getting late when the lights of her cell dimmed. The fluorescent bulbs flickered down to a ghost of their former glow and, for the thousandth time, the tired guards hinted that she might want to sleep, though she could tell by their tones they’d long since stopped expecting the suggestion to accomplish anything. From the hallway, she hadn’t heard a sound since Sebastian left, and through the air vent, she could see the corridor lights lower as well.

Briefly, she toyed with the idea of letting her hands catch flame just to make more light, but with how tense the pathologically frightened smaller guard had become over the past day, she wasn’t certain he wouldn’t just blow up the room at the first hint of magic. Pushing the temptation aside, she shifted position on the cot, and then regretted it when the man flinched.

She buried a grimace. Every second hurt. People were in trouble out there. And if she could escape this cell and force the feral bastards to give her the cripples’ location, she might be able to do something about it.

Instead, she was waiting.

Her gaze twitched to the larger guard. Questions burned inside her, becoming more intolerable as the hours crept by. The man hadn’t said a word beyond suggestions of sleep ever since Sebastian left and, on some level, she’d started wondering if his whole display earlier had just been some kind of tactic to keep her in Darius’ custody. The claim of possible poison could have been solely for her benefit, and the guard never even said what she was supposed to be hanging on for.

Like everything else, it could be just another trick.

Every light in the cell went black.

In the darkness, a muffled shout rang out, followed by a heavy thud. Ashe scrambled to her feet, flames rushing up her arms.

“Your majesty, wait!” the guard cried, holding up his hands in the firelight.

The smaller man lay in a heap on the floor. The guard opened his mouth to speak when a clunk from the door interrupted him. Keeping one eye to her, he pulled open the door.

Ashe blinked. “Elias?”

“Are you alright?” he asked as he hurried inside, leaving three men waiting in the hall behind him.

She nodded, looking between the councilman and the guards.

“I’m sorry about the delay,” Elias said. “We’ve come to get you out of here.”

Relief hit her, followed almost instantly by caution. Darius had lied to her for months. Cornelius had betrayed her for the sake of the monarchy. Sebastian had just wanted an excuse to hurt her more. By all reports, the council thought she was insane.

And Elias wanted to defy them all by helping her escape.

She’d had enough of trusting anyone blindly.

“Why?” she asked as she glanced through the doorway, evaluating her chances of fighting past the wizards before they raised the alarm.

“Your majesty, we need to go.”

She scoffed, not moving. At the sound, the large guard shifted uncomfortably.

Elias exhaled. “Because this is madness,” he stated. “I don’t know what happened today, but I know you. I’ve worked with you for months. You’re not crazy and you’re not a traitor. But this afternoon I heard a man I’ve known for years suddenly propose we undermine the monarchy and put the council in control. He’s charging you with high treason, and the kangaroo court he’s set up is already planning what they’ll do once they find you guilty.

“Everything’s falling apart,” he continued. “And the only reason people are going along with it is because they’re scared. But this is insanity, and I refuse to risk that it could get the last member of the royal family killed.”

Ashe hesitated, eyeing the wizards again.

“Please, your majesty,” the large guard urged quietly.

She glanced to him, caution still in her gaze.

“Nathaniel was one of your father’s personal bodyguards,” Elias told her. “As were the others with me. You can trust them.”

“And Darius was his friend,” she replied.

Elias grimaced. “Give me some credit in who I chose to have watch out for you.”

She hesitated a moment longer and then nodded.

“Alright,” Elias said. “Katherine and the others are waiting. I can get us out of here if–”

“We can’t leave yet,” she interrupted.

He stared at her.

“Darius is holding a bunch of people hostage. I don’t know where. But if I leave, he said he’d kill them.” She paused. “We need Sebastian.”

“Your highness–”

“Can you get a portal close to his room?”

Elias hesitated. “Yes,” he allowed. “But it’s going to attract attention.”

“Do it.”

His mouth tightened, and then he sighed. “This side of the door,” he said to the three men in the hall. He glanced to the large guard. “Nathaniel–”

“I stay with the queen,” the man finished, any alternative negated by his tone.

A grateful smile pulled at Elias’ mouth, though it didn’t reach his eyes before it died. He took a deep breath as the others came into the cell and then he extended his hand toward the exit.

The doorframe sizzled with electricity, the air pressure in the room plummeted, and then the view of the hallway was dragged into a vortex of gray smoke.

“Go,” Elias ordered.

She followed the guards through the portal.

Dim light surrounded them as they stepped from the stairwell doorway. The three guards hurried ahead of her, leading the way to Sebastian’s room, while Nathaniel fell in by her side. At the door, the men paused, looking back at her and then to Elias coming up behind.

She nodded.

They shoved the door open and Ashe followed them in.

Sebastian sat up sharply in his bed, and then his magic was gone. The guards rushed him and swiftly, one drove magic into Sebastian’s mouth, silencing him completely while the other two hauled him from the bed.

“You miss me?” she asked as they dragged him past her.

The hate in his eyes was answer enough. Struggling to shout past the gag, he thrashed in the guards’ grip as they headed for the door.

She hesitated, her gaze flicking in the direction of her bedroom. Her gun was back there. Of everything here, it was the only thing she didn’t want to leave behind.

Shouts rose from deeper in the building. Lights came up in the corridor and she could feel the air pressure drop from portals forming nearby. At the door, Elias raised his hands, and the view of the hall vanished into shadow.

“Your majesty?” he called.

She cursed internally, hurt swelling though there was nothing to be done. Drawing a sharp breath, she raced after the others through the portal.

The moist, concrete wall of the subbasement brought her to a halt.

“What took so – wait, why is he here?”

The flustered voice greeted her and she glanced over to see Katherine staring at them in the darkness, the red light of a distant exit sign reflecting from her gold glasses.

“Her majesty insisted,” Elias explained as the five wizards with Katherine joined the others in dragging Sebastian down the hall.

Katherine’s gaze flicked over her. “You are unharmed?” the woman asked, the words equal parts question and statement of what would be, regardless.

Ashe nodded. Katherine echoed the motion distractedly, turning to watch Elias follow the guards.

“This way,” the woman said.

By the doorway of a storage room at the end of the hall, Elias tugged out his cell, swiftly checking the locations he’d set his portal to reach. A grimace twisted his expression. “They’ve already prepped the main gate. Twelve guards. More than normal. Other access points for the shield aren’t any better.”

He glanced to Ashe, and she nodded at the question in his eyes.

Drawing a breath, he turned, running a hand over the door. The blue glow of wizard writing raced down the frame, sorting destinations faster than she could read. Ignoring the display, he yanked the handle and then stepped back. “Go.”

Guards blocked the chain-link gate beneath the irradiating glow of a security light. Eyes going wide, they tensed as Ashe and the others came through the booth doorway.