The Crimson League (The Herezoth Trilogy) (36 page)

“Have you lost your mind? Do you think I don’t want to go cleave Alten’s head from his shoulders? I’m a strategist. And an archer, I’m worthless hand-to-hand. I don’t even have my sword, I have a dagger. I could get you twenty seconds before they killed us both.”

Kora lowered her head to the paper-strewn floor, tears filling her eyes. Then she realized, all of a sudden, that she had not seen Zacry, and she gagged herself again as she tried to yell. Had he run? Was he hiding?

Zalski slammed the cover of the last of three spellbooks he had skimmed. “It doesn’t seem to be here. You two—” he turned to the guards—“keep watch outside the building.”

The soldiers left, and Zalski used
Mudar
to rip the gag from Kansten’s mouth. “I don’t suppose you’d oblige us with the location of the
Librette
?”

She spat at his feet.

“I see,” said Malzin. “No spellbook. That’s fine, perfectly fine. I’ll settle for your trinket.” Kansten’s eyes bulged with loathing, the veins swelling in her cheeks and neck as Zalski’s wife removed her amulet, her fingertips grazing the captive’s skin. Then Malzin folded her arms, quoted what Kansten had not said.

“‘
Get your hands off me, you malicious bitch?
’”

Kansten’s mouth fell open in feigned surprise. “You
can
read minds!”

“Malicious, hmm? It seems Laskenay taught the country bum big words.”

“Malicious fool’s more to the point, if you need magic to guess what I think of you.”

Malzin scowled, then did a double take as a jet of purple light shot past toward her husband. Zalski’s reflexes were sharper than hers; he summoned a black shield, deflecting the binding spell to hit the washroom door while he then cried “
Desfazair,”
and a twelve-year-old boy popped into being against the wall. He too summoned a shield, which flickered in and out. His was an olive green.

“What in the world?” said Zalski. He walked up to the boy, clearly startled, but in command of himself. “What’s your name?”

The boy’s jaw moved down, and up again, silently. He strained visibly not to panic, to keep his shield up. “Trep,” he sputtered.

“Trep, is it? Short for Porteg?”

The shield faded completely. Malzin squealed in delight. “Not her brother? She was imbecile enough to hide her brother here?”

“That’s enough,” said Zalski. He patted Zacry’s rigid shoulder. “There’s no reason to be frightened, none at all. I see Kora taught you some
magic. I’ve met your sister. S
he has talent, as do you.” Zacry stared wordlessly at the sorcerer. “She has talent, but I’ve been casting spells longer. I have a decade’s worth of experience over her. If you’re serious about learning magic, you should study at the Palace.”

“I don’t…. I can’t….”

“You’ve heard stories about me, is that the problem? Every story’s different from a different point of view. You can’t trust rumors, Zacry. You’ve heard what people say about your sister? They call her dangerous. Unbalanced. Power-hungry.”

“She isn’t!”

“I know she isn’t. I told you I’ve met her.”

Malzin was growing impatient. “Why don’t you gentlemen talk this over in the next room? All three of you?”

“Oh no,” said Alten. “I’m staying right here. That pesky thing called a witness.”

Malzin glared at the general. “Zalski, why don’t you take the boy, then?”

Zacry turned a pallid face to Kansten as Zalski steered him to the washroom.

“We’ll be all right, Zac. So will you, you’ll be all right!” the woman cried to him. Then Zalski shut the door. Malzin turned the amulet over in her palm.

“A powerful trinket you have here—Kansten, isn’t it? It made quite an impression on me in Podrar, I can tell you.” She turned to the redhead. “And you must be Bendelof. From the same farming village as your friend here. I’ll bet you were acquainted even before the League. How charming.”

Malzin slipped the amulet over her white hair. Kansten’s face turned gray; her jaw grew slack, and her eyes darted to her fellow captive.

“Now this is troubling. You think I’m going to punish
her…”
Malzin pointed a thin finger at Bendelof “…for what happened when I met
you
in the capital. Don’t worry dear, I’m not that malicious.”

Only the outer winds of Malzin’s vortex hit Bendelof; her chair went sliding across the wall. Kansten, however, took the brunt of the swirling air. It sent her soaring past the drapes and through the window with an ear-splitting shatter.

Alten pulled Bendelof and her chair upright. A fresh cut bled on her brow line, and her eyes had trouble focusing.

“Now you’ve nearly knocked the hostage unconscious, have you had your fun?”

“I would say so. What is so amusing, general?”

Alten was chuckling. “It’s just so ironic. All this bluster, and you still haven’t found the
Librette.
”

Malzin narrowed her eyes. “Rone never promised the book was here.”

“But you have no earthly idea where it is, no more today than four months ago. My God, you have foul luck.”

“I’m amazed you aren’t calling me incompetent.”

“You are incompetent, usually. In this you’re just unfortunate. If the League had set its mind to thwarting me, I’d still be searching out a mindstone vein.”

Choking sobs wracked Kora’s body. Menikas took pity on her and pulled the bandana from her mouth. He looked more distrait, more wretched, than Kora would have thought him capable. All trace of the leader, of his forcefulness, had disappeared.

“Who?” he asked.

“Kansten,” Kora whispered. “They killed Kansten. Rone betrayed us.”

Menikas stiffened. “Rone?”

“But Zalski’s gone.” She could not bring herself to mention Zacry. “And the guards, they’re gone. If I turn invisible, I just might get Bennie out of there.”
And then get Zac, get Zac before Zalski realizes….

“It’s worth trying.”

Menikas pulled Kora to her knees. “
Despareska
,” she said, but before she could transport, she saw Zalski return from the washroom. “Damn it to hell!”

“He’s back, isn’t he?”

In the apartment the sorcerer stopped short, marking the broken window.

“I’m still going back,” said Kora. She restored her visibility.

“No.”

“All I need’s three seconds!”

“I said no!” Strength had returned to Menikas’s voice. “I’m not risking you.”

“To hell with risk, we’re talking about Bennie!”

Menikas squeezed Kora’s forearm so tightly she grit her teeth. “You took an oath, Porteg. You swore to obey your superiors.”

“I never swore to stand by while….”

“While casualties were made? We’re at war! You’re a soldier, and you need to keep your head! You say you need three seconds. Zalski would need half that to grab Bennie and latch on for the trip. Then we’d all be dead.”

Kora’s eyes smoldered, but she said nothing. Menikas was too close to her; he would stop her again if she tried to use magic. She forced herself to return her attention to the apartment.

Bennie was pleading with her eyes for someone to ungag her. Zalski obliged with a vanishing spell.

“Where?” she sputtered. “Where’s Zacry?”

“Ensconced in my parlor.”

“Don’t hurt him. Please don’t hurt him! He isn’t his sister. He’s innocent even by your standards.”

“Zacry Porteg is nothing but a child. I’m no monster, Miss Esper. In fact, I’m doing the boy a favor. I’ll rescue him from his sister’s corruptive influence. You I have different plans for.” Zalski grabbed her upper arm. “Malzin….”

“If I’d known my stay in Yangerton would be this short, I’d have packed less.”

“We’ll get your bags later.”

Idiots.
“May I suggest,” said Alten, “for the umpteenth time, that we stay to eliminate the rest of the League as they come back?”

“That’s not our objective, General. I know Laskenay and the princes. How they think. And I’d prefer to have them leading the resistance than whatever unknowns would take their place in reforming their organization. Rest assured that when we crush the Crimson League, it will be in such a way that nothing will sprout from its ashes.”

Zalski’s parlor. The room where Kora had spoken with the “king.”

She wrenched away from Menikas, cast the transport spell beneath her breath before he could react, and fell breathless to the ground as when she had tried to cross by magic from one mountainside to another, though she did not faint this time. Zalski had sealed the room, the entire interior of his home, against magical intrusion.

“No,” Kora moaned. “No….”

The papers beneath her slid as she tried to stand upright. Menikas caught her before she fell again. He thought something ghastly had happened at the apartment.

“Bennie? Not….”

“He has Zacry.”

Menikas’s grip became gentler before he relinquished it, when Kora found her center of gravity. “Which he?”

“He took Zac to the Palace. He’ll groom him to be his heir.”

“Zalski? Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Malzin can’t have children. And Zac’s a sorcerer. The man….” Kora shuddered. “The man who murdered Sedder will raise my brother. And I can’t stop him. I can’t even try!”

“Zacry will be all right.”

Kora flinched as Menikas reached out. “Don’t touch me! Don’t you touch me, this is all your fault!”

“My
fault?”

“I could have saved him! If you’d let me go back, I could have saved him!”

“If I’d let you go back, he would have seen his sister murdered.”

“You don’t know that! You can’t
know that! You pompous blueblood, what gives you the right to pass my
brother to that man’s care? What?”

“Listen, Porteg, it fell to me to make a decision, and I stand by it.”

“So if Lanokas had been in that apartment, you’d have gagged me and bruised me and left him to Zalski’s mercy?”

Menikas slapped her across the face. She threw a chair at him, but he deflected it waving his hand. Back at the apartment, Zalski transported Bendelof and Malzin away.

Kora froze. “Alten’s alone,” she said.

“Are you serious?”

“Grab my sleeve. My sleeve, do you hear? If you touch me with so much as a finger, you’ll be wishing you were Galisan.”

445

CHAPTER SIX

Aftermath

As Alten opened the apartment door it resisted of its own volition, pulling away from his fingers as he took a step back, bewildered.

“You’re going nowhere, Grombach,” growled the prince.

“Hune Menikas.” Alten turned on his heel. “And the second Porteg. What are the chances I’d meet both in one day?”

Kora raised a hand to her forehead, startled she had lost her wrap, forgetting how Menikas had used it. Then her rage returned, overpowered anything else she might have felt. “You let Malzin kill my best friend. You let Zalski take my brother.”

“Let me guess, and now I pay for it.”

“
Lassmagico!
” she screamed.

Alten flicked his wrist, and the jet of purple light speeding at him reversed direction with no wide turn, and no warning. It struck Menikas, who was too slow in dodging, and lengthened to bind him tight. The prince teetered.

“
Desfa
—”

Kora stopped her spell short, clutching her throat. Alten used his power to move the chain around her neck so that it choked her. She tried to croak out words, but made no sound. Her face grew hot.

He rotates objects. Lanokas said he…. Lanokas….

Kora’s legs shook, and she dropped to her knees, losing strength. She clawed at the chain, tried to dig her nails beneath it. Fifteen more seconds and her vision went blurry.

My God, I’m dying.
The thought struck her with a jolt while a buzz sounded at her ear.
I’m dying, and there’s a damn fly.

             
She doubled over. Her head slammed the floor, and her throat felt like it was on fire. The fingers of her right hand twisted in the chain, while a cold gulp of air seared her lungs.

I can breathe
….

Kora lifted her head as quickly as she could. She blinked to clear her vision and made out Alten leaning propped against the door, a crimson stain spreading across his tunic. A shaft protruded from his chest. He looked shocked, or maybe light-headed. His eyes met Kora’s, and gasping, she threw the chain of red gold over her head.

“You lucky bitch,” he groaned. Then his eyes rolled back and he slumped over.

Kora stared at his corpse for a full thirty seconds, coughing and heaving. She would have vomited, but there was nothing in her stomach to throw up. Menikas groaned from the floor, where he still laid bound. “Now do you understand why I stopped you?”

“More so, yes,” croaked Kora. She freed the prince and tried to moderate her anger, which was rising once again. They would have been fine, just fine, had she remembered Alten’s power. “That arrow, where did it…?”

“The window.”

Kora stumbled to the broken pane. Bidd stared back at her from the roof of the building opposite, bent on one knee, gaping, his bow still aimed into the apartment. Hayden and Hal were at his side, peering down to the street. Kora clenched her stomach and lowered her gaze.

Between the teenagers, they had struck down the guards Zalski ordered outside. The bodies lay across the front stairs. The street was deserted, and most curtains shut tight; no one wanted to see or be seen when slain soldiers formed part of the landscape. Kora’s eyes swept the cobblestone road until they reached a spot five feet out from the window.

Kansten lay face-up in a smattering of wood bits. Bubbles of blood stained her lips, and a crimson puddle framed her head, reddening her golden hair. Her face was frozen in an expression of shock. Her limbs were still bound, pulled in unnatural angles.

I never told her my theory, about Ranler and the cage. I guess it doesn’t matter. I was wrong, dead wrong. They got her anyway. They didn’t cart her off, but they got her.

Menikas walked up behind Kora. He stretched a hand out and pulled it gently toward his chest; as it moved, Kansten’s eyelids slid closed.

“She would have wanted it this way,” said Kora, more to herself than the prince. “She preferred this over letting them capture her. Oh, oh God, Bennie….”

“Bennie’s tough as nails. She doesn’t look it, but she is.”

“You don’t think they’ll rape….”

“She won’t be tortured. At least, not until Zalski gets his hands on the
Librette.
He wouldn’t risk accidentally killing her, she’s exactly what he wanted for that spell. One of us.”

That spell. The version of
Estatua
that maintained brain function and would asphyxiate Bennie in about a minute without the Lifestone to prolong her agony. The incantation that would let Zalski search her memories, her entire life, at will. Kora shuddered.

“Thank God we moved that book. Thank God. We can’t let him get his paws on it, let him do that to her.”

“We won’t. It’s about all we can do for her now. Let’s go, we have to clear out the other apartment and get to the woods.”

The first clearing in the forest between Yangerton and Podrar was the designated meeting point in the event League headquarters fell. Kora looked once more to the rooftop, but Bidd, Hayden, and Hal had already started off.

“We should clear this place out first,” said Kora. “Did they take anything? Can you tell?”

“It doesn’t look like it. Everything that would interest them’s across the street.”

“The papers for those rooms, they’re in Galisan’s name.”

“But we have them. That apartment’s safe, for the moment.”

“Menikas?”

Menikas bent over Alten, reaching for the crystal that hung around his neck.

“Don’t touch that!” Kora shrieked. Menikas jumped back, staring at her. “Don’t touch it, it calls Zalski, it…. We don’t want…. Or do we? Menikas, do we?”

The dead king’s son gave Kora a skeptical once over, but did not touch the crystal. Kora stared at the stone that lay across Alten’s chest. If only she were in a state to duel!

She went to the bedroom, trying not to think too much as she rolled blankets, saving Kansten’s and Bendelof’s for last, her shaking hands making the folds uneven. When the room was packed, she slung three sacks on her shoulder and threw Laskenay’s to Menikas. He had gathered some odds and ends from the washroom, but put them down to pack Laskenay’s spellbooks.

“My sleeve,” Kora specified. Seconds later, they were in the clearing.

The sun was high, the sky overcast. A songbird twittered from the branches of a nearby oak, while the spring breeze soothed the bruises and the cuts on Kora’s neck.

“I’m going back for more,” she said, dropping her sacks in a heap. “You’re staying here.”

It took three more trips to transport the weapons, the bowls and flatware, the emergency food stores to the woods. Kora worked fast, ignoring Alten’s corpse and the mute curse on his faded lips. After dumping her last armful of goods, Kora dropped at the foot of an oak at the clearing’s edge, ignoring Menikas now. She stared in the direction of Yangerton, as did he.

Kora wanted to scream, to sob, but lacked the strength even to cry in silence. All she knew was that she should have tried to save them. Kansten would never have left a Leaguesman to Zalski’s mercy. Not even Bidd, and God knew she thought Bidd worthless. Worthless. If she knew what Kora owed to him…. And Bennie, Bennie would probably have offered herself as a hostage to save the others.

I should have fought Menikas harder. I should have just gone without him. I don’t care what he says, there’s a chance I could have saved at least Bennie. Three seconds to grab her and transport, maybe less. Three seconds. She never would have left me there, not in a million years. Not for anything!

Someone came tromping through the forest. Kora recognized Bidd’s blundering ways and made herself stand. He was the first of the teenage boys to rush into the clearing.

“Kora.” His eyes looked abnormally large. Bushes had scratched his arms and torn the side of his tunic. “Kora, are you all right?”

“I’m alive, thanks to you.”

Menikas clapped him on the shoulder. “That was some shot.”

“Who did he kill?” asked Hal, pulling stray twigs from his mess of curls.

“Zalski’s general,” said Kora.

Hayden’s face lightened two shades. The tote he carried tumbled from his arms, and he said, “We were on our way back when we saw the uniforms, at the steps. We were still a ways off, but something wasn’t right, so we pulled out our bows. We always have them on us.”

Menikas nodded. “Now you know why.”

“We climbed a fire escape the next street over. Clambered to the roof, and that was when we saw Kansten. The guards heard Hal gasp, so Hal and I, we had to shoot them. And then Bidd saw….”

“I looked in the apartment,” said Bidd. “I saw what that man was doing to Kora, so I shot. I thought I might hit her, but under the circumstances….” He looked around. “Where’s Bendelof? Kora, where’s Bennie?”

“They took her away,” said Menikas. “And Zacry.”

“You’re joking,” said Hal.

“Do I look like I’m joking? Did you not see what they did to Kansten?”

“Is there…?” Hayden sank down. “Is there no way we can…?”

“Rescue them?” said Menikas. “I wish there were.”

Kora, feeling faint, leaned back against her tree again. She tuned out the voices around her and fingered Petroc’s chain. Only death could break the connection, the sorcerer had told her. Well, Alten Grombach was dead.

Kora hesitated, not wanting to wear the chain Alten had used to strangle her, unwilling to forge the magical link she knew she must, the link she had shied from at the first. She took a steadying breath.

“What else have you learned?”

Zalski lounged in his parlor, leaning forward to show interest, while Zacry clutched a glass of ice water so tightly his knuckles turned white.

“I can cast
Estatua.
And I know a shield spell, but you, you saw it, it’s weak.”

“You’ve the start of a nice repertoire. It’s heavy, I notice, in defense.”

“I only know what Kora taught me.”

“Your sister’s wise. The world rejects the magicked. I can start your instruction next week, if all goes well. We’ll continue defensive training.”

Zacry looked unsure whether to be awed or terrified. Terror won out when Malzin walked in. “Did you find him a room?” Zalski asked.

“I thought to let Zacry decide. Would you prefer a tower room—the view is spectacular, you can see the entire city just about—or one more spacious with a window over the stables?”

“The stables,” Zacry mumbled.

The practical choice. Good man.

“If you’re ready, I’ll show you to it,” Malzin offered. “I think you’ll be impressed.”

“Is there anything you’d like?” asked Zalski. Zacry took a deep breath. He put down his half-filled glass, and spoke clearly.

“How about to leave?”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible. I won’t set you on the streets to starve.”

Zacry thought for a moment, and the barest trace of a light shone in his eyes. He said, “If I’m going to be here a while, I could use a grammar. And maybe a, a math tutor. If it isn’t too much trouble….”

Zalski smiled. “Education’s never trouble. I’ll see some books are brought to you. You enjoy reading?”

“I’ve heard it’s recommended.”

“Come along,” said Malzin.

“Don’t touch the boy,” Zalski directed. “He knows of your power, as does the entire kingdom. I don’t want him believing we’re abusing his stay with us.”

Malzin shepherded Zacry out the door, and he let himself be led. What else could he do?

The boy’s got spirit, and potential to spare. He’s lucky it won’t be squandered in one of their so-called safehomes. Even Miss Porteg recognized his talent. Why else store him with her cohorts? If it’s defensive magic she wants for him, defensive magic he’ll have, at least to start. He needs to acclimate himself.

Zalski stood up.

I should see how Miss Esper’s adjusting.
Though it’s useless to have her here while the book eludes me still. Still! Damn them, damn every one of them! Infiltrating their cabin here produced nothing, but this time I was certain….

Perhaps the girl will prove helpful. But I doubt it.

Trasporte.

The sorcerer spoke the last word aloud, and moved to a bedroom in one of the towers: apparently, to transport within the Palace itself was not a problem. Mostly empty, the space seemed larger than it was. A rug tinted black covered part of the stone floor, and the walls, also stone, were bare with a single window two feet in height but a mere two inches wide. A four-poster bed with a thick woolen blanket was the only furniture. Bendelof sat in the corner, bound by familiar purple ropes now instead of the original twine, tensing when Zalski appeared in front of her.

“Are the accommodations to your liking?”

Bendelof admitted, “They’re not what I expected.”