Unleashed Fury (BloodRunes: Book 1) (12 page)

He got lost in his own thoughts then before
suddenly making a little jump to face Gryffon once more. “So, what
do ya think of my arrows?” Gryffon opened his mouth to answer just
as a small gray cat bounded up onto the counter in front of the
stall. At its appearance, the woodsman cut him off before waiting
for an answer. “Ah, hello there kitty. What are you up to?” The cat
settled herself down, wrapped her bushy tail around her, and
proceeded to lick her front paw. The woodsman pet her, and the cat
languished in the attention he gave her, standing and pressing her
body against the length of his stroke, flipping her tail out as he
reached the end.

Gryffon cleared his throat, “So, how much for
the arrows?” The two men concluded their business and they left the
woodsman to dote on the feline.

As soon as they were out of earshot Layna
turned to Gryffon, “You weren't kidding.”

“No, no I wasn't. One of the smartest men
I’ve ever met, but he certainly has a strange way about him.” They
both broke into a fit of laughter.

*

The laughing couple remained unaware of the
pair of eyes upon them, even as those eyes narrowed to slits at
their shared amusement. “Devon,” Jezebel said slowly in a dangerous
voice, “the rest of your people can handle the task of looking for
spies. I have a special job for you.”

Devon followed her gaze and gave a nod of
understanding as he recognized the servant girl laughing with
Gryffon. “And what kind of job would you like it to be?” he
asked.

“Simply watch for now,” she answered
languidly. “I want to see what they're up to. Then, perhaps, we'll
have to make it something more interesting.”

Devon gave another curt nod and left to set
their plans into motion. Jezebel stood watching a few moments more
before turning on her heel, her cloak spinning out behind her as
she stormed off into the shadows of the alleyway.

Jezebel had worked herself into a tantrum by
the time she reached home and immediately rang for a servant to
bring her a cool towel for her head.
How dare he embarrass me
like this?
She paced back and forth in the library
. And with
that low-life peasant nothing who obviously doesn't know her proper
place in life.
She stomped her way to a chair and sat heavily
down into it
. He should be grateful that I reduced myself to his
level to lavish my attentions on him. And how does he repay me? By
running around with that, that lowborn hussy! I can't let anyone
find out
.

At that moment, a homely servant girl
practically tripping over herself hurried in. She curtsied a
greeting and hastily brought the towel forward. She turned to
leave, but stopped mid-step, with wide eyes like a trapped animal,
when her mistress spoke.

“Can you believe that he would do that?”
Jezebel asked the girl, feeding off of the fear she could
practically taste emanating from the maid.

“N-n-no, my lady?” the girl stuttered with a
bewildered expression, slowly taking a step back into the room with
obvious trepidation.

“Can you believe,” Jezebel went on “that Lord
Gryffon would have the gall to steal from me?”

The girl gave her an astonished look, and
shook her head, but could not get a sound to escape from her lips.
Her silence didn't matter; Jezebel ignored her and continued on
blithely. “I have him here out of the goodness of my heart.
Charitably taking him in when everyone else had deserted him. I
even tried to make it look better for him by allowing him the
pretense of courting me while he was here, even though I would
never really be interested in a lower noble.” She sighed, feeling a
little better now that she was able to talk about it, formulating
the lie as she spoke. “And what does he do? He has the nerve to
take a cherished family heirloom from me. It must have been him
because I know none of you,” she waved a hand at the girl
indicating that she meant the servants, “would do such a dishonest
thing.” Jezebel now turned to the girl and stretched out a hand
which the girl took timidly. “Come, sit,” Jezebel commanded, trying
to soothe the silly little thing now. “What's your name?”

The girl sat gingerly on the chair, as though
afraid her very touch could soil it.
And it very well might. Who
knows how often these people bathe
, Jezebel fleetingly thought
to herself, making a mental note to have it cleaned. “Katrina, my
lady,” the girl answered in a soft voice, barely above a
whisper.

“There now, Katrina, I couldn't very well let
him blame it on one of you innocent people, now could I?” The girl
shook her head and Jezebel smiled. “That's right, dear. You may go
now.”

The girl rose at once and made her way to the
door, catching herself at the room's threshold, where she turned to
give Jezebel a quick curtsy on her way out. Jezebel frowned at the
door as it shut behind her. She’d tried to treat the thing nicely,
and the brainless little ninny hadn't been able to keep her wits
about her. Next time she'd know better than to bother treating the
help as people. At least this one was quite mundane looking. That
was some consolation.
Unlike that whore that Gryffon is paying
attention to. I should have thrown her out the first time I laid
eyes on her. I knew she'd be trouble.
She sat glaring into
space
. Perhaps I'll have to arrange a little trouble for
her...Yes, that would suit me very nicely.

CHAPTER 9

Layna was kept very busy the next few days as
Jezebel had received an invitation to attend the coronation
ceremony for the newly appointed King Nathair. She had ordered that
all new dresses be made for her stay at the palace. Of course, each
had to be made in several different colors so that no matter what
color the other courtiers would be wearing, Jezebel would be ready
with an appropriate outfit. Therefore, in addition to the normal
upkeep of the manor, Layna and the other servants were frantically
running around in a desperate attempt to keep up with their
mistress's ever-increasing demands. Every time they felt like they
had caught up, Jezebel would think of something else that needed to
be prepared, only to change her mind once it was done.

Gryffon had been more subdued since their
conversation, and other than a few stolen moments to exchange
pleasantries, she had been mostly unable to see him. Though she
knew that it was for the best, Layna missed him and couldn’t deny
that she had been disappointed when she had learned that he would
be attending the coronation with Jezebel.

After what seemed like an eternity of running
around to keep up with all of her demands, Jezebel and her party
were finally off. As the carriages pulled away, Layna let out a
sigh of relief and looked forward to a quiet manor. She sent a
silent 'good luck' to the unlucky entourage that had been chosen to
accompany them, and headed back inside.

That night, the servants gathered for their
own celebration, and to gossip about the new King. Aaron attended
with Katrina and seemed quite happy to dote on her, which amused
Layna to no end. When Aaron wasn’t looking, she gave Katrina a
smile and a wink, and the girl beamed back at her. Both greeted
Layna warmly as she made her way over to them and Katrina handed
her a mug of cider wine, which she took gratefully.

“Good thing I like tea enough to make up
herbs I need for one on the spot,” she whispered to Layna, poking
her in the ribs good-naturedly. While Katrina had found the time to
run squealing into Layna’s room to tell her the news that she had
finally spoken with Aaron amidst all of the rushing around for
Jezebel, apparently the conversation about why he had asked her
what herbs she would need had only recently come up.

“You’re welcome.” Layna smiled and stuck out
her tongue at her. Obviously the conversation had ended well.

They all huddled around the fireplace in the
kitchen where the cook was making sweet pies for them. Layna
listened idly to the conversations around her, chewing slowly on
her pie, and savoring the flavor.

She caught Gryffon's name from the corner
where Katrina and Aaron had migrated to sit with their heads
together, and she directed a question to them. “What happened with
Gryffon?”

Katrina looked startled as she looked up at
Layna. “Wow, good ears. I was saying that for some reason today
Jezebel felt the need to tell me that she thought that Gryffon had
stolen something from her. She claimed to have such amazing faith
in us that she just knew it couldn't possibly be a servant who had
taken it.”

Aaron snorted. “The day she gives any of us a
sliver of respect when it doesn't satisfy some ulterior motive of
hers is the day I'll eat my own boot.”

Layna nodded in agreement, but Katrina
suddenly looked worried. “You don't think she was trying to get me
to confess to having taken it, do you?”

Layna shook her head. “She's probably just
complaining about Gryffon when he didn't do anything. It seems to
be a favorite pastime for her.”

Aaron interposed, “Maybe he really did take
it.”

Layna shot back, slightly more nastily than
she had meant, “Gryffon wouldn't do something like that; she's just
a filthy liar.” Aaron looked taken-aback by her conviction and gave
her a strange look.

“We all know that most of what comes out of
the lady's mouth is a lie, I'm sure it's nothing,” soothed Katrina.
Layna fell silent, listening to the rest of the stream of
conversation and avoiding making eye contact with Aaron.

“I've heard that the new King Nathair is
making all sorts of improvements to the system already, and he's
not even coronated yet,” said one of the gardeners.

The cook interceded, “Not that any
improvements that they make are likely to improve our lives any.”
He paused and looked thoughtful for a moment before adding,
“Although, if they caused Lady I'm-too-good-for-everything to dine
somewhere else more frequently, my life at least would get that
much better.”

They all laughed at this comment. This
nickname for Jezebel was only safe to use when she and Devon were
well away from the manor, but all the servants delighted in it.
Luckily, such an important event at the palace was almost certain
to keep them detained, so the servants could relax and vent their
frustrations during that time.

Layna hadn't heard much about what King
Nathair was doing except what she had happened to have picked up
from conversations between Jezebel and her friends or her father.
King Edward had died in a hunting accident, and it sickened Layna
that Jezebel and her friends had seized upon the opportunity to
gossip about it rather than mourn him. Since he did not have an
heir, the throne was left empty upon his death, and the Council had
been forced to choose the next-in-line. They had decided that King
Nathair was a distant relative of the royal family and therefore
considered him worthy enough of bearing the title.

Layna wasn't sure that she accepted the logic
of naming someone King based on relations alone, but at least he
supposedly was a good leader in his own right. Layna deduced from
the snippets of conversation that the other servants were having
that the King was busily proposing new laws. He was trying to give
farmers tax-breaks; giving them the option of trading horses and
oxen for back taxes. He wanted to fund some rather big projects
like erecting buildings for improved food storage and wanted to
re-open some of the ore mines which had been abandoned. Jezebel's
father had made an off-hand comment about the improvements sounding
an awful lot like war preparations. Layna felt a chill.

Jezebel's father was nothing like the woman.
Jezebel was the epitome of evil as far as Layna was concerned,
self-centered and completely dispassionate about anyone but
herself. She was a very smart woman, but her arrogance was her
greatest weakness. She seemed to be in her own fantasy world where
she felt as though she could do anything she wanted, and no one
could do anything about it because she was better than them all.
This delusion seemed to make her less daunting as she tended to go
about exacting her revenge in such a way that would only have
worked if she really was the center of the universe as she had so
convinced herself.

Jezebel's father, on the other hand, was a
very smart man and unlike his daughter, his thoughts were also
based in reality. His combination of intelligence and shrewdness
made him even more dangerous to those who crossed him. But despite
the unyielding force he was to most people, he fell for Jezebel's
'woe-is-me' attitude every time. He usually gave in and bought her
whatever new item she simply had to have.
Like the new carriage
she so desperately needed because the old one was too squeaky - and
besides, Daddy, the neighbors have one just like it. Or when she
had needed new curtains for the library because the color didn't
compliment her eyes
.

Layna had noted that the conversations
Jezebel had with her father tended to bring out a new Jezebel, a
Jezebel whose world was entirely against her and only her father's
money could fix it. Perhaps it was simply that love is blind. She
was, after all, his daughter. Nevertheless, Layna was left
dumbfounded by how glibly he bought her stories. Maybe he knew she
was lying, but chose to ignore it, simply giving her what she
wanted in hopes that maybe this time it would make her happy.

Layna wondered about their whole
relationship. She had once overheard him shouting at Jezebel
through the closed library door raving, “How could I have raised
such a stupid daughter?!” Layna did not know what the rest of the
conversation had been about as she had absented herself
immediately, for fear of both their furious rages, but had almost
felt bad for the woman in that instant. She couldn’t imagine her
own parents ever saying anything so hurtful.